Review: Sutton Foster and Once Upon a Mattress Hit Broadway With Its Raucous Charms Intact

The new Sutton Foster-led Broadway revival of the classic 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress follows the 2022 production of Into the Woods in being mostly a direct transfer from New York City Center’s Encores! series. Having seen and enjoyed that production earlier this year, I expected to have a similarly fun time in its Broadway home at the Hudson Theatre. But this Broadway transfer also reminded me of the subtle depths underlying the fluffy surface of Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer’s take on fairy tales.

Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” is the inspiration for Mattress. Queen Aggravain (Ana Gasteyer), who imperiously rules her kingdom alongside the mute King Sextimus (David Patrick Kelly), is trying to marry her son, Prince Dauntless (Michael Urie), off to a princess. But the show begins with the 12th and seemingly last princess failing one of the Queen’s impossible tests.

According to the Queen’s own decree, none of the women in the land are allowed to marry unless Dauntless finds a worthy love interest—a circumstance that proves especially fraught for Lady Larken (Nikki Renée Daniels), who has just discovered she’s pregnant with the child of the knight Sir Harry (Will Chase). Realizing the desperate predicament they are both in, Harry embarks on a quest to find a princess out there for Dauntless…and that is where the swampland princess Winnifred “Fred” the Woebegone (Foster) enters the story.

Once Upon a Mattress is a parody of fairy tales in some ways, with its book (adapted by Amy Sherman-Palladino from the original book by Barer, Jay Thompson, and Dean Fuller) adopting an irreverent tone in telling the supposed “real” version of Andersen’s story. But great parodies often exude genuine affection for their original material. Rodgers (music) and Barer (lyrics) clearly understand the universal appeal of stories like this. Even as the narrating Jester (Daniel Breaker) cracks jokes at the tale’s expense, we’re also invested in seeing Dauntless break free from his mother’s clutches and in seeing Fred puncture the patina of royalty with cathartic glee.

That’s the quiet strength of director Lear deBessonet’s no-frills staging, which allows subtle themes to shine through. Not that she doesn’t give us things to look at onstage. David Zinn’s scenic design may recall David Rockwell’s similarly spare set design for the Into the Woods revival (which deBessonet also directed), but Rockwell’s set didn’t have banners with pictures of doughnuts and hot dogs on them. Andrea Hood has clothed the performers in an array of eye-catching medieval wear. But hair, wig, and makeup designer J. Jared Janas is responsible for the show’s most memorable stage images: the deliberately messy coifs of Foster’s wigs even when she dons neater attire.

As was the case with her Into the Woods, it’s deBessonet’s handling of the cast that stands out the most. It would have been easy to let experienced comedians like Foster, Urie, Gasteyer, and Brooks Ashmanskas (as the Wizard) cut loose on the material. But even at their most exaggerated, the performers always remain grounded in their characters and the show’s underlying emotions. Will Chase may play Sir Harry as a dim hunk obsessed with his new spurs, but he allows us to glimpse his inner sincerity, trying his best to do right by Lady Larken.

All the actors, though, turn in deliciously over-the-top comic performances, some of them effortlessly executing the physical comedy bits Skylar Fox has choreographed. Gasteyer has a ball playing the villainous Queen, but Foster and Urie are even more impressive in their balance of slapstick and heart. Even if Urie overplays the stunted nature of his character (a mama’s boy yearning to break free and grow up), he still radiates an innocence that engenders sympathy.

But this is Foster’s show, and even more amazing than her vocal pipes, physical dexterity, and attention to emotional detail is the way all of it feels spontaneous, as if she’s coming up with these bits off the cuff. If Once Upon a Mattress reminds us of the lasting appeal of fairy tales, Foster reminds us of the thrilling spectacle of seeing performers work their magic live.