‘Once Upon a Mattress’ @ The Fleetwood Project
—Jan Farrington
If you’re pulling together a production of the fractured fairy-tale musical Once Upon a Mattress, you must (first thing!) fill “An Opening For a Princess”—and she’d better be fun, loud, and dripping with comic charisma. In other words…extra.
Lucky for The Fleetwood Project, then, to have found the marvelous Robin Baker, who takes over the stage as song-belting, bigger-than-life Princess Winnifred in the company’s current run. We can’t stop watching “Fred” —who makes us laugh (and charms our socks off) every time she pops up on stage with her un-princess-y ways and blazing self-confidence.
She’s a princess on a mission, come from her swampy homeland to win the hand of Prince Dauntless (Ryan Terry) in a competition designed by his mother the Queen (Cathy Pritchett)—who absolutely-for-sure wants her “baby boy” to get married. Uh huh. That’s why she’s turned away almost a dozen princesses already.
A Minstrel (Aaron Black) opens the show with “Many Moons Ago,” warbling the “regular” plot of The Princess and the Pea—and then tells us it’s all hooey. His version, with music by Mary Rodgers and lyrics by Marshall Barer, is what really happened. It’s pretty complicated, and much, much funnier.
Nicole Howell directs, with Hannah Wright handling choreography—and (credit to them and the actors) I sensed plenty of joy and energy from the big cast all the way through. Mattress is easy to have fun with from both sides of the stage—the Rodgers/Barer songs are clever fun (and bounce happily from one song style to another), and the main characters have quirks that make them break out of the usual fairy-tale mode: the flirty King (Aaron Helm) can’t speak (he’s under a curse); the grumpy Wizard (Taylor Teal) does cheap magic tricks to drive away the boredom of serving Queen Aggravain (great name!); the Jester (Cole Brayton Lucas) is obsessed by vaudeville, where his “Daddy” once danced a soft shoe. And Lady Larken (Anna Mitchell with a great soprano) and her beau Sir Harry (Ryland Mallett) have silly rom-com fights every five minutes—but also, a serious situation to sort out.
The romantic spark between Winnifred and Dauntless is surprising at first. She’s brave and sure; he’s timid—and endlessly bullied by his mother. But they fit, somehow, both having sweet and generous hearts that pull them close. They’re charming and real together.
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to catch the show at Fleetwood’s cute vintage theater earlier in the run. As of writing, there’s exactly one show left, Sunday April 26 at 2:30; if the notion of a fairy tale/Broadway mix appeals to you, you might want to catch it. Once Upon a Mattress began life in the late 1950s as a parody entertainment for a grown-up theater “camp” outside New York City—with Mary Rodgers (Richard’s daughter) and some talented friends working together. The show was such a hit it wound up on Broadway in the early 1960s, with a very young Carol Burnett (can’t you just see it?) playing Winnifred—and becoming an instant star.
Like the song says, “many moons ago.” But still plenty of fun.
WHEN: April 17-26, 2026
WHERE: Farr-Best Theatre, 109 N. Main, Mansfield TX
WEB: https://thefleetwoodproject.org/
