Jay Thompson News

Read the reviews for Once Upon a Mattress, now playing at New York City Center Encores!

Up next at New York City Center, the Encores! season kicks off with Once Upon a Mattress, running January 24 through February 4, 2024. Check out a first look at the cast in action here!

Check out vide footage from the Encores! production of Once Upon a Mattress.

See some of the stars of the upcoming Once Upon A Mattress in action as they gear up for their City Center run. Watch as Tony Award-winner J. Harrison Ghee performs “Many Moons Ago” with Nikki Renée Daniels (Lady Larken) and Cheyenne Jackson (Sir Harry) peforming, 'In a Little While”.

Watch the 26-piece Encores! Orchestra, led by Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, play SHY in preparation for ONCE UPON A MATTRESS here!

Harriet Sansom Harris is joining the cast of Once Upon A Mattress at New York City Center Encores! next year. Playing the role of Queen Aggravain, Harris reunites with Sutton Foster, who she previously starred alongside of in Thoroughly Modern Millie.

NEW YORK CITY CENTER announced additional casting for the first production of the 30th Encores! series, Once Upon a Mattress. Find out who will join the star-studded company!

How do you tell a real princess from a wannabe?  You’ll have a grand time finding out, as Stage West, in a co-production with Theatre TCU, presents the charming, classic fairytale musical Once Upon a Mattress, which begins a 3-week run on Thursday, October 19.  Learn more about the production here!

Conejo Players Theatre presents Once Upon a Mattress by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer. Learn more about the play and find out how to get tickets here!

New York City Center has announced programming for the 2023 – 2024 Season, 80 Years at the Center of the Arts, which will include productions of Pal Joey, Titanic, Once Upon a Mattress, Jelly's Last Jam, and more!

Stage West is excited to announce the lineup for its 45th season!   The new season will feature six shows, one of which will be a co-production. Four will be presented in the Evelyn Wheeler Swenson Theatre (“The Evie”), with two in the Jerry Russell Theatre.. It’s a unique mix of 1 musical and 5 plays, which range from an intriguing drama to a delight-inducing comedy-mystery to a much-loved classic. 

Beck Center for the Arts, one of the oldest continuously running Youth Theater programs in the nation has announced the delightful Youth Theater musical production, Once Upon A Mattress.

Broward County's Cultural Community shone bright in May, when friends, community activists, artists, dignitaries; and historians gathered to celebrate the opening of L.A. Lee YMCA/Mizell Community Center. This former site of Provident Hospital, the first Black Hospital in Broward County, established courageously in 1938 during segregation, is today located along Fort Lauderdale's cultural, historically-significant Sistrunk Boulevard.

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s third show of the 2021-’22 season will be the hilarious musical comedy ONCE UPON A MATTRESS – a rowdy and mildly adult twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea.”

Swift Creek Mill has had a lot of eras that could be called golden, but for me the period around 2008 was memorable. In particular, I recall loving their production that year of a?oeOnce Upon a Mattress.'

Today in 1959, Once Upon a Mattress opened at the Phoenix Theatre, where it ran for 244 performances. Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. The play was written as an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Princess and the Pea. Once Upon A Mattress marked the Broadway debut of later stage and TV legend Carol Burnett, who originated the role of Princess Winnifred. Also featured were Joseph Bova, Allen Case, Jack Gilford and Matt Mattox. Jane White played the role of Queen Aggravain, becoming the first African-American actress to portray a white character on the Broadway stage.

Mary Rodger's (yes, daughter of that Richard Rodgers) 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress makes an appearance in Highgate in a revival that, unfortunately, looks old and stuffy despite all the talent on stage.

Hey Nonny Nonny! Theater RED announces the musical ONCE UPON A MATTRESS produced in collaboration with students, faculty, and alumni of Carroll University. ONCE UPON A MATTRESS tells the story of the brave and strong Princess Winnifred who comes to the rescue of a kingdom in need of a new outlook on love, leadership, and life. This classic fairy tale gets a modern musical reimagining in the Otteson Theatre on Carroll University's campus in November 2019.

Centenary Stage Company's critically acclaimed Young Performers Workshop returns to the Little Theatre at 400 Jefferson Street on the campus of Centenary University for the annual Spring Festival of Shows.

Gallery Players' comic and progressive retelling of THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA will make you rethink your expectations of fairy tales. Opening today, February 22, ONCE UPON A MATTRESS, with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer, is the story of the brave and strong Princess Winnifred who comes to the rescue of a kingdom in need of a new outlook on love, leadership, and life. Filled with hummable tunes, raucous comedy, fabulous dance numbers, and a happily-ever-after, this musical will appeal to audiences both young and old.