Discover what is being said about the musical revival, starring Sutton Foster, at the Hudson Theatre until the 30th November.
New York Theatre Guide: “While numbers like “Shy” and “Song of Love” are memorable because of their musical specificity and lyrical whimsy, others remain head-scratchingly forgettable. Foster carries Mattress just as Carol Burnett did in 1959, but the feat may now be too weighty.”
Variety: “At its best, in fleeting moments, the show feels like a “Fractured Fairy Tale” of the sort that “Rocky and Bullwinkle” popularized around the time this play was first mounted. One feels the desire, on the part of the production, to say something about children’s stories, to develop or complicate the myths we learn in our youth. “Into the Woods” is an impossible comparison, but an ounce of that show’s curiosity about the stories we tell would have been welcome.”
Deadline.com: “In short, Foster nails this performance, bringing what is, ever has been and always will be a mid-tier musical that has more unnecessary subplots and sing-song padding than an old mattress has feathers. The rest of the cast – Brooks Ashmanskas, David Patrick Kelly, Ana Gasteyer, Daniel Breaker, Will Chase, Nikki Renée Daniels and, especially, Michael Urie – lends loads of support, but this is Foster’s show.”
New York Post: “DeBessonet’s “Mattress” is not a thoughtful, conceptual reduction — it’s just the formula Encores! almost always employs to showcase an old score. That’s fine for 55th Street, but it’s much too slim and straightforward for a night out on Broadway.”
Vulture.com: “Being that the original book shows its age (as is true of many midcentury musicals), Amy Sherman-Palladino has done some rewriting for this production, and I admit that I went in wondering whether that would work. The crisp patter that works so well in the mouths of Rory and Lorelai Gilmore, I thought, might land the way it does when a middle-aged English teacher tries to describe Iago as “sus.” As it turns out, I had it backward. The show’s fluffy antics and the sorta-kinda-joke-medieval setting turn out to accommodate her quippiness perfectly, and some of the new lines really recharge a scene.”
New York Theater.me: “What I saw as missing from this “Once Upon A Mattress” upon second viewing on Broadway, was an almost intangible alchemy that turns fun into comic mastery. Does it involve comic timing? Authenticity? Modulation? Pacing? I’m not sure.”
The Wrap.com: ” Why someone who’s already a bona fide star like Foster wants to prop up a wet mess like “Mattress” is a complete mystery. When the derivative songs by Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer are being sung, you want to get back to the story, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea.” And when the actors are reciting the tired lines from Barer, Jay Thompson and Dean Fuller’s book, you want to get back to the songs. Amy Sherman-Palladino receives an “adapted by” credit, but she punches down rather than up.”
Slant Magazine: “As Winnifred, Sutton Foster is buoyantly alive and dazzlingly reliable as ever in her 10th Broadway outing since Thoroughly Modern Millie, her 2002 star-is-born moment. Foster has giant shoes to fill but does Burnett proud in a performance that’s grown over the past six months from the giddy Winnifred that she offered earlier this year.”
ExeuntNYC.com: “This revival of Once Upon a Mattress has plenty of things to like. I did laugh and I would say I had a good time. It’s a perfectly fine off-season show after the crush of openings last spring and before the wave this fall. Maybe that’s all you need.”
New York Stage Review: “With opportunities for every member of the ensemble to shine, and a sprightly, toe-tapper of a score from Mary Rodgers (music) and Barer (lyrics), Once Upon a Mattress has gotten familiar but never gets old; and if it ever felt tarnished, Foster and Co. do a lot to bring the luster back.”
Theatrely.com: “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.”
Theatre Mania.com: “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.”
To find out more visit: https://onceuponamattress.com/