‘Once Upon a Mattress’ Review: Sutton Foster Is an Awkward Fit in a Musical That’s Not Quite Broadway Royalty

variety.com:

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic Close to the climax of “Once Upon a Mattress,” now revived on Broadway for the second time, Princess Winnifred (Sutton Foster) has reached the end of her rope.

After the frustrations of the preceding two hours or so, Winnifred, the beleaguered would-be bride to a feckless prince, screws up her face and declares “What are you, some kind of nut?” The audience at the Hudson Theatre lost it, but it wasn’t hard to feel — in this moment and throughout the production — left outside of a seeming inside joke, and one that doesn’t quite work. “Once Upon a Mattress,” little-loved by critics since its 1959 debut but perennially revived in community theater, has precious little story to speak of. (It’s based on “The Princess and the Pea,” Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale whose plot could be conveyed in three sentences — four, if you’re feeling verbose.) And this production — adapted by “The Marvelous Mrs.

Maisel” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and previously seen early this year as part of City Center’s Encores series — tends to try to solve for the play’s deficiencies with an attitude that is something less than winning.

About those deficiencies: As Winnifred, Foster is at the center of the story — she’s the suitor whose sensitivity is being tested by placing a single pea under a stack of 20 mattresses and seeing if it disturbs her sleep.