Bedtime story
CdA Summer Theatre’s latest, ‘Once Upon a Mattress,’ features role that made Carol Burnett famous
‘Once Upon a Mattress” was one of the original fractured fairy tales.
This lighthearted 1959 musical is a spoof of the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Princess and the Pea.” The irreverent – yet kid-friendly – tone of the musical can be summed up by the names of some of the characters: Prince Winnifred the Woebegone, Prince Dauntless, Sir Studley and Queen Aggravain.
This tuneful palace romp has found a place in musical theater history for two reasons: It launched the career of Carol Burnett, and it was written by Mary Rodgers, the daughter of the great Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame.
The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre revives it in a production that opens Saturday, under the direction of artistic director Roger Welch.
The Carol Burnett role of Princess Winnifred will be played by Kat Ramsburg, a Seattle actress who has performed at Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theatre, the Village Theatre and the Civic Light Opera.
This is a great comic vehicle – and Burnett certainly squeezed every bit of potential out of it back in 1959.
On opening night of “Once Upon a Mattress” on Broadway, the New York critics were thoroughly convinced that they were watching the birth of a new star.
“Some of it is sung by a breezy comedienne who comes brawling into the story about halfway through the first act and gives it a wonderful lift for the rest of the evening,” wrote Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times.
“She is Carol Burnett, a lean, earthy young lady with a metallic voice, an ironic gleam and an unfailing sense of the comic gesture.”
Robert Coleman of the Daily Mirror wrote: “If you don’t see La Burnett’s name in Main Stem marquee lights one of these nights, then we don’t know talent when we see it burst across the footlights.”
Burnett ended up getting a Tony nomination – and a career as the clown princess of TV comedy.
The other, just as remarkable debut, was that of Mary Rodgers, who certainly knew plenty about musical comedy, as the daughter of the form’s acknowledged master. Yet this was her first attempt at pursuing the family business.
The critics were pleasantly surprised.
“For the record, it must be reported that she is a daughter of Richard Rodgers,” wrote Atkinson. “But nothing she has written sounds like his portfolio. She has a style of her own, an inventive mind and a fund of cheerful melodies.”
She went on to write several other Broadway musicals, but “Once Upon a Mattress” was by far the most successful.
The show was a hit, earning a Tony nomination for Best Musical. It went on to have an even broader audience when most of the Broadway cast reassembled to perform a filmed version that aired on CBS in 1964. A second, color adaptation aired on CBS in 1972, also featuring Burnett, with Bernadette Peters in a supporting role.
In 2005, another version aired on ABC, this time with Burnett in the Queen Aggravain role. It also featured Tom Smothers and Tracy Ullman.
Meanwhile, the show was revived on Broadway in 1996 with Sarah Jessica Parker as Winnifred and Jane Krakowski in a supporting role. It ran about six months and earned a Tony nomination for Best Revival.
The CdA Summer Theatre version features a supporting cast that includes Amy Ross, Craig Heider, Robby French, Jack Bannon, Kendall Hartse, Jadd Davis, Dane Stokinger, Mark Cotter, Corey Goselin and Cameron Lewis.
The 16-piece orchestra will be directed by Steven Dahlke and the choreography is by Krystle Armstrong.