Broadway: Sutton Foster Channels Carol Burnett in Totally Silly, Very Funny “Once Upon a Mattress”
9 / 10
It takes about 30 minutes in Palladino’s version (and the terrific director Lear deBessonet) to get Foster out on stage. That’s how much she’s fleshed out the original, thin story. All the subsidiary characters now have back stories and quips galore. But in the end it’s all about Sutton Foster. She’s pulled from the best of Burnett nd Lucille Ball, including a scene that hearkens back to Lucy and the chocolate candies. But she’s updated their gifts so they blend with hers. Foster doesn’t have her signature tap dancing in this show, but her physicality is something we haven’t seen on Broadway in a long time. “Mattress” is supposed to be a limited run, but I’ll bet it goes on much longer.
