By Michael Buzzelli
When Winnifred (Katie Flanigan), an uncouth princess from the other side of the swamp, comes to the castle with marriage on her mind, she’s bound to aggravate Queen Aggravain (Stacie Paronish) in “Once Upon A Mattress.”
Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer took Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea,” and fractured that fairy tale with a broad musical farce (with music by Mary Rodgers) back in 1953. Carol Burnett made her Broadway debut, originating the role.
Side note: The show premiered in Pennsylvania, in Pike County at Camp Tamiment, a theater camp.
There was a recent revival of the show on Broadway with Sutton Foster played Winnifred to Michael Urie’s Dauntless with revised material from Amy Sherman Palladino (“Gilmore Girls,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and “Etoile”).
To crib from “Six” this show has a queen of the castle and a bunch of dirty rascals.
Katie Flanigan does a fine job as Princess Winifred.
Paronish is a stand out as Aggravain. She swaggers on the stage, shooing peasants, shouting rapid-fire orders at her servants and generally being both aggravating and vain (hence the name).
Rich Ivaun is channeling Harpo Marx as King Sextimus the Silent, chasing women and pantomiming through most of the show. Every Sextimus scene is like a rousing round of Charades where you’re paired up with some bad guessers.
Catherine Hayashi hands in a pleasing performance as Lady Larken. There’s a fun bit in the show where she disguises herself as a boy and fools absolutely no one (it always bothered me when Lucille Ball would dress up like a dude and keep her lipstick on).
On opening night, the rest of the cast seemed a little shy. While it’s not fair to compare a community theater production to a Broadway show, it was hard to get the original cast recording out of my head. On the plus side, this ticket is far less as expensive as a Broadway show and there are raffles during intermission.
There were two great elements to the show: Cindy Berg’s costumes (the Nightingale costume was outrageous and hilarious), and Joe Wagner’s set. Wagner’s set is fit for a king.
Ruth Ann Fox handled the music with aplomb. Her orchestra was top notch.
Even though the show had flaws, “Once Upon A Mattress” is a good place to expose your children to live theater. It’s a funny fairy tale with good songs that might encourage your kids to move in a cultural direction.
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“Once Upon a Mattress” runs until May 18th at the Bud Allison Memorial Auditorium at Mount Pleasant Community Center, 20 Wabash Ave, Hickory, PA 15340. For tickets and more information, click here.
