Once Upon a Mattress

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A musical comedy that parodies the well-known story of "The Princess and the Pea", Once Upon a Mattress started as a Broadway play, then later appeared as a TV special (more than once). It premiered in 1959, with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. As The Other Wiki states, it's a popular choice for high school and community theater shows.

Its most prominent claim to fame is that it was the breakout role for actress Carol Burnett, who played the princess on Broadway, and appeared in several TV versions of the musical (though she switched to playing the Queen as she got older).


Tropes used in Once Upon a Mattress include:

Queen: Are you feeling a little weary, dear?
Fred: No, let's do it again!