Thursday, September 04, 2008
'Once Upon a Mattress' puts twist on fairy tales
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "A 'twisted' version of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about an annoying pea bugging a princess in her bed will unfold onstage this month at McKeesport Little Theater."
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7 comments:
Once Upon a Mattress is a great show very all ages as the article states. I once performed in this show, and by perform I mean stage managed, and it was a blast. This show was a lot of fun to be a part of because of the silliness of the characters and the sets. I would suggest this show to any performing group because it is a very cute show!
I agree with Katherine, "Once Upon A Mattress" can be a wonderful show depending on the vision of the company producing it. It can be either very imaginative or too cutesy. It is similar to "Charlie in the Chocolate Factory" in this way. Put a darker spin on it and the show becomes something new. I would love to see Once Upon A Mattress done with a German Expressionist set, right up the Franz Marc alley.
The last time I saw "Once Upon A Mattress" it was put on by a middle school cast. I'm sure the show can be compelling and enjoyable, but the cutesy and over the top can be a little too much.
I would be interested to see how much twist they put into the musical. At some point with so much twisting people don't lose the idea of what exactly they are suppose to be looking at. But fairy tales are always fun to change in interesting ways to make some characters seem more realistic or just over the top.
Once Upon A Mattress seems like a show that is desperately in search of an audience. Having worked on the junior version of the show in summerstock last summer, the show had to be modified fairly heavily to make it more appropriate for younger children. They got rid of the pre-marital pregnancy storyline for the younger children. The show is certainly entertaining, and the name Carol Burnett certainly helped the show in its original run. It is a strange choice for theatres today, though, because it can be tough to get an audience.
These shows, Once Upon the Matrees or Into the Woods, are great family shows because kids will love the fairy tale world and everyone else will enjoy the subtle or blatant humor that flies over their kids' heads. What's also great about them is that the genre doesn't feel overdone, even though there is enough work out their that condradicts my statement. It's just that it breaks the norm of a theatre experience and slices up an easy afternoon in the audience. My only rant on these types of musicals, especially Once Upon a Mattress, is that usually it's the actors that makes the characters memorable, not always the script.
You can almost never go wrong with adapting a fairy tale to fit the stage. The ancient Greeks did it all the time, using theater to tell stories from their mythology. While, yes fairy tales are not religious, the serve the same purpose.
Although I have never worked on or seen Once Upon a Mattress, it sounds like a very interesting show. Especially if you put some kind of spin on it that will make the show more than just "entertaining" to adults, while going somewhat unnoticed by the children in the audience (kind of like Into the Woods does).
I have always wanted to see this show, and now I am even more excited.
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