This post concludes my blogging for the year, unless I somehow manage to do a “Christmas Books” post tomorrow.
It has been a great year of reading, but a truly record-setting year for live theater. This includes the trip my wife and I took to New York City to see a number of Broadway plays, our annual Utah Shakespeare Festival trip, and a few unexpected opportunities: Henry VI in San Diego, and Pacific Overtures at East/West Theater. Combine this with a bunch of excellent local productions, and somehow I ended the year with no fewer than 32 live theater events. That’s more than a month’s worth this year.
The last one happened just before Christmas, sandwiched in between all my music gigs. One reason I haven’t written as much this December is that I have been…really busy. Which is good.
My first experience of Sutton Foster was her role in Sweeney Todd, but my wife previously saw her opposite Hugh Jackman in The Music Man, during her trip with a friend to NYC a few years ago. Both of us enjoyed her work - she truly is a theater superstar, and a comic genius. Thus, when my wife saw that she was coming to Los Angeles, she noted the date tickets went on sale, and got us a pair of seats.
Once Upon a Mattress is a re-telling of the old “Princess and the Pea” fairy tale. The music was written by Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers and Hammerstein or Rodgers and Hart fame, depending on your generation.) Mary Rodgers also wrote the novel Freaky Friday, later made into a film, so she was a bit of a polymath. I am not as familiar with the others who wrote the lyrics and the book, but it was a definite group effort.
The fairy tale needed to be updated a bit for modern times - and by “modern” I mean the 1950s. Gone is the simpering and delicate princess, and in her place is swamp queen Winifred, loud and brassy and literally everything Queen Aggravain does NOT want for her precious little mommy’s boy, Prince Dauntless the Drab.
So, the queen mum would prefer to be the de facto ruler of the kingdom, after her henpecked husband loses his ability to talk due to a curse. So why let her son marry and take the throne?
Instead, Aggravain devises tests to eliminate all aspiring princesses - none will ever be good enough.
Unfortunately for the other denizens of the kingdom, no one else is allowed to marry until the prince does.
When Lady Larkin finds herself pregnant by the rather empty-headed Sir Harry, she knows she has to convince Harry to take his favorite spurs and his new title, and find a princess forthwith.
Harry, not being the brightest, comes back with…Winifred. Who, impatient at the slow drawbridge, simply swims the moat, climbs up the wall, and tosses out the snakes and other creatures who have occupied her clothing.
Prince Dauntless is instantly smitten, and determines to overcome his shyness and immaturity and win her over. With some help from Harry and Larkin, as well as the circus entertainers turned wizard and jester.
We all know how the story ends, of course.
The fun of this retelling is in the humor - the lyrics are deliciously witty, and the script designed to show off the comedic talents of the actors. Back in the day, it was Carol Burnett in her Broadway debut playing the part of Winnifred. Sutton Foster stepped into those shoes with a performance that clearly paid tribute to Burnett’s style.
This was a professional production, and it lived up to expectations. I loved that the orchestra was on-stage behind the actors. (And of course that there was an orchestra - not always the case these days.)
The set was colorful and minimalist - an interesting choice but one that worked here by allowing the actors to be the focus of the storytelling.
I can’t think of a weak role, but all of the main ones were perfectly cast. Sutton Foster, of course, was hilarious. Between the grape eating, the snake flinging, and the astonishing contortionism she is capable of, she owned the show. And was freaking hilarious. Worth the price of admission just for that.
But she was matched by several other truly excellent actors. Michael Urie as Prince Dauntless was also comic genius - the physical acting was perfect, and his final coming-of-age believable (as far as fairy tale transformations go.)
Daniel Breaker as the jester provided the right level of sarcastic commentary (he opens the show with a puppet demonstration of the classic tale, then explains that he knows the real story.)
Kevin Del Aguila as the humbug wizard, using cheap slight-of-hand tricks at inappropriate times, while projecting that silly arrogance of the insecure charlatan. Good stuff.
David Patrick Kelly has a resume a mile long on stage and screen, and had a mostly non-speaking part as King Sextimus the Silent. As a short guy myself, I appreciated his role as (literally) the shortest person on stage. And his combination of ASL, charades, and made up god-only-knows-what to communicate was a gas. So fun to watch.
Ben Davis (Sir Harry) and Oyoyo Joi (Lady Larkin) had good chemistry as a couple, and Joi, as arguably the only straight role in the play opposite all the comic characters, held her own well.
And, I have to mention Ana Gasteyer as Queen Aggravain. Not only was she able to match Foster’s stage presence, she literally whipped out a violin and played for one of the dances. As a violinist, I love it when someone actually plays rather than fakes, and this was the real deal.
(I googled her afterward, and appears that she and the recently late President Jimmy Carter’s daughter Amy were friends and played violin together. So legit.)
My wife and I made a day of it, enjoying some of our favorite LA foods, and discussing the musical afterward.
I suspect it is unlikely that we will be seeing quite this many productions in a year again, but it has been fun, and we do look forward to enjoying theater together regularly as our kids get older and leave home.
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