We’re really looking forward to watching Once Upon a Mattress tonight on ABC (7:00pmEST/6:00pmCST). We love this show and have loved it for more than 40 years. I saw the old 1964 black and white TV version when it was shown and the 1972 color TV version when it was originally shown. We’ve got the original broadway cast recording. We certainly know all the songs and I believe we can recite most of the lines.
Winifred: Actually, my full name is Winifred the Woebegone but “Winifred’s” a little formal. Most people call me by my nickname.Dauntless: Winnie?
Winifred: Fred.
Dauntless: Fred. What a beautiful name! So straight. So strong. So you.
The new cast is promising. Who could be a better Agravaine than Carol Burnett? She must surely still know the lines. And, of course, we’ll relish her return to the small screen if only for an hour or two. Tracey Ullman is an inspired choice as Winifred the Woebegone so we’ll have two of the greatest of all female clowns (a rare and wonderful commodity).
I’m sure we’ll miss Jack Gilford’s charming, gentle human King. Tom Smothers is an interesting choice. I don’t think he has Gilford’s stage presence but I’m willing to give him a chance.
UPDATE: Just finished watching and it was a very nice production. Burnett and Ullman were, of course, great. Sir Harry had a very decent ingenue voice (a pleasant relief from more mature voices I’ve heard in the part). Lady Larkin was still possessed by the curse of Andrea McArdle.
Tom Smothers made the part of the King his own. His King was a sly King. Good.
The stand-out, I thought, was Dennis O’Hare as Prince Dauntless. Each one of his numbers was a treat and “The Talk”, with Tom Smothers, was the high point of the show.
Great costuming and sets.
I’ll be buying the DVD.
