Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show: Part 41: All 3 Mattresses

Once Upon a Mattress is the satirical fairy-tale musical that put Carol on the map. The show with music by Mary Rodgers (Richard's daughter), lyrics by Marshall Barer and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller and Barer began life as a one-act at the Tamiment summer camp and then expanded for a full-length show opening Off-Broadway in 1959, directed by the legendary George Abbott. It later transferred to Broadway, playing several different theaters, racking up a total of 470 performances. In a daring bit of casting, African-American actress Jane White brilliantly played the wicked queen and repeated her performance in two of the TV versions. A popular choice for high school and community theater, I worked backstage on a production at the Barn Playhouse in Jeffersonville, PA, pushing the mile-high mattresses on and offstage. A 1996 Broadway revival starred Sarah Jessica Parker and an Off-Broadway one in 2015 starred Jackie Hoffman and Jon Epperson (aka Lypsinka). Sutton Foster is scheduled to headline an Encores! presentation Jan. 24-28, 2024. There were three different TV versions, the first two headlined by Carol in her original role of Princess Winnifred the Woebegone. The role cemented Carol's early persona as a boisterous, belting comedienne, not conventionally attractive and always man-hungry.

Once Upon a Mattress
June 3, 1964: Carol, Joseph Bova, Jane White, Jack Gilford, Bill Hayes, Elliott Gould, Shani Wallis, Jack Fletcher, Michael Bennett (chorus).
This first CBS televised version of Mattress is available on YouTube complete with commercials for Lipton Tea. It's abbreviated and condensed from the original script. The roles of Sir Harry and the Minstrel are combined. They've also cleaned up the relationship between the pregnant Lady Larken and the

Carol as Winnifred selling Lipton Tea
during a commercial on the 1964 TV Mattress.
"Satisfying like coffee, but friendlier."

Minstrel/Sir Harry with the pair being secretly married rather than Larken expecting her baby out of wedlock. Plus the Minstrel gets banished for mocking the Queen, thus providing an additional reason for Larken to want Princess Winifred to pass the mattress test. The Jester is much younger and sexier, played by Elliott Gould and also in love with Larken. Gould is actually quite good in his dance solo "Very Soft Shoes" which ends abruptly in this version with the Queen discovering the connection between Larken and the Minstrel and ordering the latter be executed in the morning--thus adding urgency to Larken and the pro-Winnifred faction discovering the mattress test and rigging it in her favor. The Minstrel and Larken sing the lovely duet "Normandy" instead of "In a Little While" in Act One. In the original, they sing a trio of "Normandy" with the Jester in Act Two. Their duet "Yesterday I Loved You" and Carol's Act Two solo "Happily Ever After" are also cut.

Joseph Bova (who I saw many years later in 42nd Street on Broadway) brilliantly conveys Prince Dauntless's childishness with his eagerness to be grown up and escape his domineering mother's clutches. In the 1972 Ken Berry totally missed the character's baby-like qualities.

The telecast ends with Carol as Winnifred hawking Lipton Tea, "satisfying like coffee, but friendlier."

Dec. 12, 1972: Carol, Ken Berry, Jane White, Bernadette Peters, Jack Gilford, Ron Husmann, Wally Cox, Lyle Waggoner

(Available as a Bonus Feature of The Carol Burnett Show: The Lost Episodes and on Carol +2: The Original Queens of Comedy) This CBS version is in color and certainly looks better than the 1964 edition and Bob Mackie's costumes are delightfully whimsical, but it's an even more abbreviated

Carol and Ken Berry in
the 1972 TV version of
Mattress.

edition than the earlier one. Several songs are missing including "Opening for a Princess," "The Minstrel, the Jester, and I," "Normandy," "Very Soft Shoes," "Yesterday I Loved You," and the Nightingale of Samarkand's lullaby. Even Carol's big number "Shy" is shortened. The characters of the Wizard and the Minstrel are eliminated. The narrator function is shared by Carol as a mother telling the story to her sleepy daughter (the action is framed as a bedtime story) and the Jester played by Wally Cox, whose role is greatly reduced. The Wizard's function as henchman to Queen Aggravain is taken over by Sir Studley, played by--who else--a nearly bare-chested Lyle Waggoner who looks ravishing in a Robin Hood style hat, Errol Flynn beard and mustache. (Mackie's costume emphasizes the width of his chest and shoulders.) He becomes the Queen's sounding board--and boy-toy--during the "Sensitivity" number.

Fortunately, "In a Little While" is restored and Bernadette Peters and Ron Husmann as Larken and Sir Harry sing it beautifully. (I love the lyrics in the intro: "My time is at a premium/For soon the world will see me a/maternal bride-to-be/I know mustn't worry, Harry/But how I wish you'd hurry, Harry/Harry, marry me.") The reference to the unwed pregnancy was judged OK for TV audiences by 1972. For some reason, the Spanish Panic--the big dance number designed to tire out Winnifred--is changed to the Polish Panic. Fortunately, Carol's "Happily Ever After" is restored. 

As a bonus there is an interview with Carol on how she was cast in the original production. She got an audition with Abbott and won the role on the same day she was rejected for a regional production of Babes in Arms. Commercials for Lanacane anti-itch cream, Uniroyal Tires, Wisk ("Ring around the collar"), Cremora, A&P Eight O'Clock Coffee, and Pepsident (with Barbara Feldon) are included.

Lyle as Sir Studley and Jane White as
Queen Aggravain in the 1972 TV version of
Once Upon a Mattress.
(I love her crown)

Dec. 18, 2005: Carol, Tracey Ullman, Denis O'Hare, Tom Smothers, Matthew Morrison, Zoey Deschanel, Michael Boatman, Edward Hibbert

The cast of the 2005 Mattress

(Amazon Prime for $16.95) ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney presented this TV-movie version with Carol graduating from playing Winnifred to the scheming Queen Aggravain (but she still receives top billing as well as serving as executive producer). It had been announced Marissa Jaret Winokur, Tony winner for Hairspray would play Winnifred, but the part eventually went to Tracey Ullman, the British comedienne who had succeeded Carol as the leading female TV comedy variety performer with an eponymous weekly sketch-and-music series. Tracey wisely avoids imitating Carol and puts her own cheeky British spin on Winnifred, but, like Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1996 revival, she lacks Carol's belting voice. Tony winner Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes, The Pajama Game) directed and choreographed. Her dances are quite fresh, polished and exciting and add a lot to the familiar numbers. The look is more like a film than a televised stage production with many shorter scenes and quick cuts for reaction shots. 

Once again, the role of the Minstrel was eliminated, replaced by the Jester. (According to wikipedia, the DVD and the Amazon Prime version have cut the prologue where a little girl is told the story as in the 1972 version.) As Larken, Zoey Deschanel lacks the pipes of Bernadette Peters, but she manages OK on "A Little While" with Matthew Morrison who really is a singer, as Sir Harry. This version lacks the total adult zaniness of the previous two, but is more kid-and-family friendly. The performances are toned down for the small screen which makes senses since they were filming in a studio rather than in front of a live audience like the 1964 and 1972 versions.