Once More Upon a Mattress

New York has always been a place where stars are born, but every once in a while, the city gives rise to a legend. In 1959, a new show opened written by Mary Rodgers, daughter of famed Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, and it starred a newcomer named Carol Burnett.

The show, “Once Upon a Mattress,” was an adaptation of the old fairy tale, “The Princess and the Pea,” about a princess who could feel a pea under a stack of mattresses. From the start, it seemed like Princess Winnifred was a role Burnett was born to play.

It marked her Broadway debut, a golden opportunity for a girl who grew up nearly penniless. Ironically, Burnett played a princess on a pile of royal mattresses yet didn’t have her own bed until she was 21 years old. “I slept on the couch; I lived with my grandmother in a one-room apartment in Hollywood, until I left to go to New York,” Burnett shared. “And then I lived in a wonderful place called the Rehearsal Club, and I had a cot. And I thought, Wow, this is nice. I have a bed for the first time.”

Her threadbare upbringing perhaps explains her ferocious work ethic. In 1959, between “Mattress” and her regular CBS gig on “The Garry Moore Show,” Burnett was working seven days a week. She was so exhausted at one point that during a matinee performance atop the mattresses, she literally fell asleep. “At the beginning, I’m pretending to be asleep,” she recalled. “Maybe I’ve put an audience to sleep, but I never could sleep in front of an audience. And I remember this stage manager going, ‘Carol! Carol!’ I might have been out for a minute, maybe two, but it was long enough to be noticeable.”

But the hard work was paying off. Burnett soon earned what was then a fortune: more than $500 a week. “I was rolling in dough,” she said. “I had never seen that much money in my life.” So, what did she do with it? “I spent it. I bought the first pair of shoes that actually fit me. When I got ‘Mattress’ and ‘Garry,’ I remember getting my first pair of high heels that fit. It was a thrill! I wish I still had them, I’d have them bronzed.”

“Once Upon a Mattress” has held up well through the years, both on stage and screen. It was last adapted for TV in 2005, with Burnett playing the evil queen. The newest version opens this week on Broadway with two-time Tony-winner Sutton Foster in the lead role. “It’s such a gift to be able to play such a wild and crazy character,” Foster said.

Playing the role night after night takes everything Foster has. “You know, Dolly Parton has that phrase, ‘It takes a lotta money to look this cheap?'” she noted. “Like, it takes a lotta hard work to make it look easy?” asked the journalist. “Yeah. That’s my goal, for it to be like, ‘Oh, this old thing? This is nothing.’ But inside I’m like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!”

To gauge Carol Burnett’s thoughts on Sutton Foster’s interpretation, “Sunday Morning” arranged for the two to meet. It’s clear that Burnett is a fan. “There couldn’t be a better Winnifred,” she told Foster. “You are it. I knew it the minute they said it, that you had been cast. I said, ‘What took them so long?’ It’s perfect. Perfect.”

Growing up, Foster was fond of “The Carol Burnett Show.” “I used to watch it every week,” she said. “You were the one!” Burnett replied. “I was the one. I was the only one!” Foster joked. “You were funny, you were tall. You were unafraid, confident. And I was like, ‘Ahh, I wanna do that.’ I would always tune in to see that continuity, that aliveness, and to look up to someone who was unafraid to be ridiculous.”

As the crown passes from one Princess Winnifred to another, “Once Upon a Mattress” seems poised to deliver a few more happily-ever-afters. When asked about her hopes for the show, Burnett said, “That it’s a great success. Here it is 65 years later, and I just feel it’s going to keep going.” Turning to Foster, she added, “And then there’ll be some day that there’ll be a girl that you’re going to love the way I love you, and you’re gonna be encouraging her. I have no doubt.”

To watch a trailer for “Once Upon a Mattress” click on the video player below:

For more info:

Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.

Source: CBS News