[.ca] Once Upon A Mattress

From Amazon.com:
Based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Princess and the Pea, Once Upon a Mattress opened in May 1959 and was a solid success, if not a huge blockbuster. It did well enough, in any case, to warrant a 1997 revival starring Sarah Jessica Parker. The show was far from revolutionary, but it provided a really fun vehicle for a cast of top stage personalities, including black actress Jane White, who played Queen Aggravain (a part originally written for comedienne Nancy Walker) in whiteface. But of course, Once Upon a Mattress's heart and soul was Carol Burnett, who, in her Broadway debut created the part of Princess Winnifred and delivered two of Mary Rodgers's best songs, the hilarious "Shy" and the spunky "Happily Ever After," which sounds a bit like Jule Styne at his most rhythmic. Burnett's timing and performance remain as sharp as they were 40 years ago. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

in a far off land. . .:
One of the first musicals to usher in the era of slightly off-beat, quirky, grown-up fairy tales we came to expect from Sondhiem (Into the Woods) and Stephen Schwartz (Pippin); "Once Upon a Mattress" is absolutely perfect from beginning to end. I played Lady Larken with a semi-professional production and fell in love with the music and the humor of the piece. It pokes fun at the very conventions associated with musical theater, right from the big opening number "Opening for a Princess" (which has slightly medieval chord progressions, but a definate Big Band swing!) to the hilarious "Man to Man Talk", which explains the facts of life as mimed by the King and sung by his slightly under-educated grown-up son. All the conventional Broadway ballads are assigned to the romantic couple Larken and Harry, who are caricatures of the gullible damsel-in-distress and the stuffed-shirt stage hero, respectively. Larken is slightly less than a traditional damsel, as she is pregnant with Harry's baby (although he gallantly admits that they should not both suffer all their lives because *she* had a "moment of weakness"!). Only Carol Burnett could endow Winnifred with just the right combination of honesty, goofiness and charm. Watch out for her biggest and funniest number: "Shy". Other great songs are "Normandy", "Yesterday I Loved You", "Swamps of Home" and "Song of Love". The revival album is good too, but Sarah Jessica Parker is simply an inferior Winnifred. This is one of those must-have Broadway albums... pretty much every song is funny and/or gorgeous. Enjoy!

You can almost see them---:
The wonderful music & lyrics, expertly performed by this talented and expressive cat, makes a soundtrack album so alive you can almost SEE them onstage! Unfortunately, the sound quality due to the recording capabilities of the time are less than perfect, but otherwise this is a fantastic collection of toe-tappers from one of the silliest, funniest examples of American Musical Theatre. No wonder Carol Burnett became a star!

It was good...:
I thought the soundtrack sounded really good when I first heard it even though I didn't love the songs all that much. Then I was involved with my highschool production of "Once Upon..." and I realized that we sounded better than the Broadway version most of the time. One of the reasons was that the Jester in our play was played by a girl. "Normandy" was my favorite song in out musical, yet it sounds terrible in this CD because it is just more pretty with a girls voice I guess. That is true for the other songs as well. It is ashame they won't make a CD with a girl Jester. The two girls in both casts that played Winnifred sounded just as good a Carol and it was the same with most other singers as well. Maybe it was due to the fact that it was live, and I will keep the CD because it is a good memory, but still I wish they would make a new soundtrack (besides the one with Sara Parker.

Have an "Opening" for this!:
This is possibly the funniest soundtrack I have ever heard! My school is putting on this comedy in March, and this CD (along with the original record) continues to be one of our most used resources. Most of the songs can be understood without knowledge of the play. The ones that can't are introduced with dialouge. All of the vocalists are excellent. This is definitely a CD every musical fan should experience. These are the kinds of songs you can sing over and over again...caution...they are addictive!

AWESOME:
I'm 16 years old, and you may say that i dont know what true music, and stuff like that, but i love music. i love the theatre. I've seen multiple shows on broadway, my favorite movie is grease. I love musicals, and all theatrical productions. I'm involved in my school Drama program, and we have quite a reputation for putting on great presentations. Recently we did the play Once Upon a Mattress. We did an awesome job, and i love the music, and you would think after all the rehersals we would all be sick of it...but we are all still singing it and still loving it. The music is great, and the show is awesome!

• Overture
• Many Moons Ago - Harry Snow
• Opening for a Princess
• In a Little While - Allen Case, Anne Jones
• Shy - Joe Bova, Carol Burnett
• Sensitivity - Robert Weil, Jane White
• Swamps of Home - Carol Burnett
• Normandy - Anne Jones, , Harry Snow
• Spanish Panic - Jane White
• Song of Love - Carol Burnett
• Quiet
• studio Dialgue
• Happily Ever After - Carol Burnett
• Man to Man Talk - Joe Bova, Matt Mattox
• Very Soft Shoes
• Yesterday I Loved You - Allen Case, Anne Jones
• Nightingale Lullaby
• Finale - Joe Bova, Jack Gilford, Matt Mattox