WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER MOAT…
Direct from its sold-old, record-breaking New York City Center Encores! run, Once Upon a Mattress returns to Broadway for the first time since 1996. Two-time Tony® winner Sutton Foster gives what The New York Times calls an “ebullient, joyful, perfectly goofy” performance as Princess Winnifred the Woebegone alongside royalty of stage and screen, Michael Urie.
Newly adapted by Amy Sherman-Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), this New York Times Critic’s Pick introduces the unapologetically eccentric Winnifred to a repressed kingdom, where she charms, delights, and dances her way to the top… of a stack of mattresses.
Book your tickets now to this uproarious production – “it will restore your fealty to the throne!” (Observer).
Scrapbooking (a much funnier word with not one but two k sounds) gets a big laugh and then so do glue and trust issues. This exchange, containing as it does so much phrasing from the present day, may not hold up in another revival 60-odd years from now, but it absolutely works today. Which is, frankly, a lot of what a revival like this is about. You stage it because, in this moment, Sutton Foster exists and can pull off Winnifred — with an endorsement from the grande dame, now 91, herself. You also stage it because, if you’re lucky, thousands upon thousands of theatergoers will say, “I was in that show in high school,” and they might buy tickets to see as well wrought a version as can be done. Which, given the limitations of the show itself, this one may well be.
“Once Upon A Mattress” opened tonight for its third turn on Broadway, with Sutton Foster’s performance as Princess Winnifred the Woebegone the same goofy and intense workout that proved a draw earlier this year in a two-week run of the 1959 musical comedy as part of the Encores! concert series at New York City Center. The production, which has replaced four of the eight principal cast members, is otherwise largely unchanged now that it has transferred to the Hudson Theater. It is still tuneful, fun, well-sung. But it plays differently for me now. On Broadway, it feels like high school.
| 1959 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
| 1959 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 1960 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1996 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2004 | Regional (US) |
42nd Street Moon Concert Regional (US) |
| 2015 | Off-Broadway |
Transport Group Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2024 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical | Michael Urie |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical | Sutton Foster |
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