Customer Reviews

Once Upon a Mattress

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

My first question is Why? Why bother going to such expense and effort to bring this old chestnut to the screen (TV, that is)? It was never a GREAT musical to begin with. But on the other hand, I'm glad they did, because, as a former musical director, I have conducted and played this show several times. The last time was over 30 years ago, so it was wonderful to see and hear it again after all this time.

There have been complaints that the songs aren't memorable. (One reviewed didn't like them so he/she fast-forwarded through them. That's a wonderful way to get to know a song!) The songs are indeed memorable, and quite tuneful. Mary Rodgers, Richard's daughter, did a wonderful job...better, in fact, than her father was doing about that time. And the lyrics are very clever. "Sensitivity" in 5/4 time is a tour-de-force of writing and performing. I was sorry they cut "Very Soft Shoes," the jester's song. And "An Opening for a Princess." I missed that, too.

The casting was either good or inspired...mostly. Matthew Morrison and Zooey Deschanel as the young lovers are rather wimpy, to the point of who care if they get married or split or what. But just about everyone else was magnificent. The jester (Michael Boatman) was too good to have had "Very Soft Shoes" taken from him. Tom Smothers, a real treat, was wonderful to watch. His pantomime and facial expressions were delightful. Denis O'Hare grew on me. Not being a TV freak, I wasn't familiar with him. Tracey Ullman was fine, if a little long in the tooth for the part. (Then again, one of the productions of the show I did starred Imogene Coca in the part, and she was in her 60s then!) As for Carol Burnett, she was fantastic, totally over the top! She graduated from the princess to the queen perfectly. (Imogene should have had such luck!) Unfortunately, a song was added for her, which did nothing to distinguish itself other than quote Winnifred's "Happily Ever After," a theatrical no-no. (Fred's song was a soliloquy. How or why would the queen sing the same thing?)

The production values were very high. Bob Mackie's costumes for Carol were breathtaking...and hysterical!

In all, though the show is dated, it's part of musical history and let's wish that more classics would get this treatment. (How about SHE LOVES ME for a start, guys?)

Just watched this on the TV special ahead of the release of the DVD and while the show was entertaining it had some short-comings principally in dropping numbers such as "Yesterday I Loved You" which was sung by the young lovers. In its place they sang a shortened version of "Normandy" which was not their number in the first place. "Very Soft Shoes" a minor show-stopper for the jester was missed and "Many Moons Ago" and "An Opening for a Princess" were reduced to bits. The score that was retained was edited but the songs still entertain. The cast was well chosen and Tracy Ullman was brave taking on a role forever identified as Carol Burnetts' who camped it up in high style as wicked Queen Aggravain for this special. Tracy was good and funny but her singing lacked the lung power of Carol Burnett especially the way Ms Burnett belted out "Happily Ever After" and "Shy" Denis O'Hare made an appropriate woe-be-gone Prince Dauntless and Matthew Morrison sang well as Sir Harry. If this show had been made for HBO maybe they could have retained the entire show instead of being constrained by the endless parade of commercials on network Tv. As is the show was still a lot of fun and the funniest line came when Lady Larkin tells Sir Harry she is expecting his baby and Sir Harry replies, "You can't be blamed you had a moment of weakness"

This production of Once Upon a Mattress makes you wonder why Tracey Ullman hasn't been on Broadway until now. She makes the show, in spite of the fact that the role is for a younger woman. For that matter, why aren't there more musical roles for women over forty? The only one I can think of is Mamma Mia. Judging by the popularity of Mamma Mia, it seems as if there is a considerable audience for such shows.

The DVD version of Once Upon a Mattress is fun to watch, but I can't help thinking that I might have been disappointed if I'd paid Broadway prices for a ticket. The only memorable number in the show was Ullman's opening tune "I'm Shy." On the other hand, the DVD includes a few extra features that you may enjoy. There's a short about the 1959 production that starred Carol Burnett as Princess Winifred, as well as two split-screen musical numbers comparing the rehearsals with the full-dress version.

For anyone who loves the original Broadway cast recording, this DVD version fails miserably in all departments. It is miscast, badly directed, and boringly choreographed. The role of the Princess needs a belter. That's the whole core of this musical. Ullman is not a belter and is also too old for the part. The supporting roles seemed to be scaled to her inadequacies, as we are also served a middle-aged, dull and pathetic Prince Dauntless. As for the young lovers, they were dull to begin with, so they come out fine. Curiously, Carol Burnett whose debut performance in the original shot her to stardom, is less than impressive as the Queen. While the part does invite some ripe overplaying, unlike the lady in the original Broadway cast who managed to bring a little subtle fun to the role, Ms Burnett has about as much subtlety as Godzilla and her overbearing presence actually unbalances this already weak production. As she chews up the scenery (which looks like styrofoam, anyway)and forcibly intrudes on scenes she wasn't meant to be in, one gets the unpleasant feeling that, despite relinquishing the starring role, Ms Burnett still has the urge to dominate. What is it with these hitherto wonderful funny ladies in later life? (Think Lucille Ball in "Mame"). All their innate skills appear to become subordinate to a manic ego. And believe me, I'm a Carol Burnett fan about everything she did until this! My two stars are for the delightful score, which even this lousy treatment doesn't quite diminish. Frankly, my advice is to skip it and if you're a fan or just curious, buy the original Broadway cast CD.

Overall, I thought this revamped version of Once Upon a Mattress was good, but not great.

Tracey Ullman was wonderful and fantastically funny as Winnifred as was Carol Burnett as Aggravain.

What bothered me was the rewriting of a great show. It was obvious the show was cut to pieces for two reasons: To give Carol Burnett a larger role and to make sure the show ran within a two hour time slot. This took many good songs out, shifted the focus of the show to only Aggravain and Winnifred and also took out a lot of charm with it. Gone is the role of the Minstrel and the fun trio of the Jester, Minstrel and King Sextimus. Gone are great songs "Many Moons Ago", "Opening for a Princess", "Yesterday I Loved You", "Very Soft Shoes" and a complete "Normandy".

While I can understand minor rewrites and cuts for TV version, I think this show was cut to the point that it suffered greatly from the original version.

I saw this movie on the guide just as it was starting last night and I'm glad I did! I knew about the origional version with Carol Burnett and the revival with Sarah Jessicah Parker and I was so happy to see that they made it into a movie. I thought it would have been a rerun of the origional with Carol Burnett but soon found out that it wasn't. I found the whole experiance very enjoyable. I loved Tracy and loved everyone else! I did notice that they did cut some songs, but I was glad they did. All in all this is the only movie version to compare to, so it has to be the best! And it is! It's goofy, it's funny, and it's just for people who like goofy and funny musicals. I would recoment it to anyone!

This new version of "Once Upon a Mattress" that Broadway chestnut from 1959 that originally featured Carol Burnett as Princess Winnifred ( she also appeared in the 1964 and 1972 television versions) reappears for the holidays with Burnett as executive producer and in the role of Queen Aggravain. This clever reinterpretation has all the appeal of the original production with the multi-talented Tracy Ullman appearing the role of Princess Winnifred. Featuring winning songs and a winning cast (including Zooey Deschanel, Michael Boatman and Tom Smothers) this version is delightful eye candy with colors that almost pop off the screen with their fairy tale sheen. Nicely updated by Janet Brownell and well directed by Broadway choreographer and director Kathleen Marshall.

Nobody in the Kingdom according to the law can get married until the Prince finds a bride. His mother Queen Aggravain (Burnett) continues to come with difficult and challenging questions/tasks to prevent her son from getting married. Desperate to get married Lady Larken (Zooey Deschanel) and her Knight Sir Harry (Michael Morrison) comes up with a plan to get the child-like Prince (Denis O'Hara) married. Harry goes on a hunt for this perfect princess and discovers Princess Winnifred (Ullman). When we first meet her she climbs over the castle walls having swam the moat. With help from Harry, Lady Larken, the Minstrel and Jester Winnifred ("Fred" to her friends) proves to be much more difficult to dispose of compared to the other princesses.


An entertaining Broadway musical that still manages to be engaging and funny, this retelling of the princess and the pea myth is a fun throw back to when musicals were king on the big screen and TV as well.

This new version of "Once Upon a Mattress" is delightful in many ways, and somewhat disappointing in others. For those well-acquainted with the original stage version, you may find yourself missing some wonderful Rodgers-Barer songs (such as "An Opening for a Princess" and "Yesterday I Loved You").
However, given the time constraints of commercial network television (where this version was originally presented), one can understand some of the decisions.

Also in this version, more weight is given to the role of the Queen (Carol Burnett) vs. Princess Winnifred (Tracey Ullman). That's understandable, however, given Burnett's star power and enduring talent. Burnett is stellar in her role, and while Ullman gets the job done with great comic timing, she lacks that awkward, youthfully exuberant, peel-the-paint-off-the-wall singing that the role needs, and Burnett so wonderfully did in the original version (and would become a trademark style for her). Still, given the casting choices these days for someone else in the role, Ullman was probably the best pick.

Though "Mattress" isn't quite in the pantheon of truly great American Broadway musicals such as "South Pacific" or "My Fair Lady" (Richard Rodgers's daughter, Mary, wrote the tuneful, memorable score), it's not easy to write "great" content around "The Princess and the Pea." Still, for a musical that got its start as a fun romp in the Pocono Mountains, any musical writer worth their salt would die happy to have a hit such as this on their resume (and bank account).

Bottom line: This new version of "Mattress" is wonderfully entertaining and stands up nicely on its own merits. It's encouraging that television is doing this sort of thing again (i.e., "Annie", "The Music Man", "South Pacific", "Cinderella").

OK, so I'm sure Carol Burnett was fab in the original show, but for my two kids and I who had never seen this before, we really loved it. It was so nice to see some real dancing on a TV movie, the colors were great, Carol's costumes were wild, and Tracy and Dennis were a hoot as the two lovers. Who cares that they were "older"? Dennis was great as a big "momma's boy" coming out of his shell and Tracy was terrific throughout. Smothers was sweet and sly, and overall it was a lot of fun. I've been introducing my kids to movie musicals lately (Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly, etc. etc.) and this was a whole lot of fun.
I'm sure many out there have great memories of the Broadway original and other productions, (including ones they were themselves in.). Hey, I was in Fiddler on the Roof when I was a kid, but I don't judge the movie by what my high school did! I say bravo to Disney for bringing something to TV that may encourage kids to go to see the "real thing" on Broadway and to support more musicals made for film and TV. And for those who complain about the cuts to the script, hey, it ain't sacred text here, it's a musical!

Everything about the show had a lot of promise, but promises weren't kept. I feel the show had 3 fatal flaws wich ultimately ruined the chance to immortalize a wonderful, hilarious play.

#1: The movie was directed by a choreographer. While the dancing is great, the life of the show comes from the comedy. I felt like the show was absolutetly stripped of the natural comedy in the origional script.

#2: The movie was made 8-year-old-child friendly. A vast majority of the humor that derives from the origional script (which they completely hashed for their PG rating) was without ambiguation geared towards an adult audience.

#3: The casting needed some serious help. Just by listening to the 1997 Broadway Revival Cast recording, you could tell what the Broadway show had that the movie didn't: Talent, and Emotion.

All in all I'm a little sad that I devoured 14.50$ plus shipping on this movie. I couldn't find it to rent it anywhere, so now it will probably just sit and collect dust on my shelf. Like I say, it had the chance to be great, but missed it.