ONCE UPON A MATTRESS Joyfully Heads Back To Broadway — Review

In 2017, Encores! gave a rare New York revival to children’s theater mainstay Really Rosie, a peculiar little musical with a cast composed entirely of pre-teens. (Rosie was part of the invaluable Encores! Off-Center program, a sorely missed Covid casualty.) The result was a charmingly shambolic affair—director Leigh Silverman’s chaotic production let loose a band of kids to run wild upon the New York City Center stage, an anarchic approach that proved an ideal fit for a silly, silly little show. 

At its best, Lear DeBessonet’s colorful Broadway revival of Once Upon A Mattress hits on much the same feeling of innocent play. Transferring to the Hudson Theatre following a successful Encores! run this January, the production’s stacked cast is far from a band of teens – Broadway regulars Michael Urie, Ana Gasteyer and Will Chase are among the incredible talents on stage. Yet at its most joyful highpoints, even this high-class gathering of musical theater’s finest feels closer to a bunch of big kids playing dress up. 

To be clear—that’s a compliment. Mattress is an exceedingly silly show. Drawn loosely from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Princess and the Pea, the 1959 musical from Mary Rodgers (music) and Marshall Barer (lyrics) concerns free-spirited Princess Winnifred The Woebegone’s witless efforts to win over a repressed kingdom and “earn” the hand of sweetly Prince Dauntless. It is hardly a great work, but Mattress has endured over the decades as a gateway drug for middle schoolers discovering song and dance. It’s easy to see why: the show is fun, loose, and proudly childish to its core. 

Even scaled up for Broadway, DeBessonet’s Encores! staging has held onto that free-wheeling, bouncy-castle vibe as much as it can. She is aided by bright, frilly costumes from Andrea Hood, expertly timed “bang-splat” sound work by Kai Harada and Lorina Lattaro’s breezy, bubbly movement work.

A little less light on her feet, comically speaking, is Foster herself. Particularly at Winnifred’s most slapstick moments, one can feel Foster working, straining for that big laugh rather than finding it more naturally. She does find an easier groove in Winnifred’s sweet dynamic with Urie’s Prince Dauntless—the pair find a gentle chemistry which lends the show a surprising and disarming dose of heart. 

Perhaps Foster’s strain is more noticeable because she is surrounded by such a masterful group of comedic performers, all of whom deliver laugh after laugh with effortless aplomb. Brooks Ashmanskas is typically first-rate as the castle’s resident wizard, Nikki Renee Daniels delights as Lady Larken, and the invaluable David Patrick Kelly is riotously funny as King Sextimus the Silent. 

If the usually strong Will Chase and Ana Gasteyer find fewer laughs, that is mostly an issue of material — even in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s smart new adaptation, Sir Harry and Queen Aggravain are one-joke characters who quickly grow stale. Yet all the supporting players hold to that light, carefree energy which DeBessonet seeks, and which Foster cannot always easily find. 

No great matter—Foster still sings and dances marvelously, and this Mattress is ultimately a gleefully joyful ensemble effort. Yet still, it must be said that by far the highlight of the evening is Daniel Breaker’s Jester. As the show’s sly, wonderfully droll narrator, Breaker finds side-splitting laughs in the slightest bulge of his eyes or turn of his cheek, and his delightful 11 o’clock number is a buoyant thrill. Let Breaker never stray from Broadway for so long ever, ever again.

Once Upon A Mattress is now in performance at the Hudson Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.