A Musical Parody Of Han Christian Andersen s The Princess...

I was really excited about the afternoon performance I was attending at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. This is essentially because I have always been obsessed with fairy tales and getting the chance to see one in action before my eyes was something to die for. Once Upon A Mattress centers around the â€Å" ‘shy’ Winnifred the Woebegone† who takes her chance at marrying Dauntless the Drab. However, she has to get through the tests prepared by the overbearing Queen Aggravain. In short, this is a musical parody of Han Christian Andersen’s The Princess and the Pea. The play began with an introduction to the orchestra that will be performing live alongside the play. I was amazed to find out about this only now. In addition, seeing that the tickets to this show was also not that expensive, I was truly thankful that I could actually kill two birds with one stone, having seen a play and an orchestra at the same time. At the beginning, an inaccurate version of The Princess and the Pea was shown before hand as the minstrel points out that the truth was far worse. This was of utmost importance to the audience to know so that they could set their expectations early on. The true story essentially begins with a test of wit for an unfortunate Princess #12, who fails miserably. I particularly liked the riddles as they helped to engage the thinking skills of the audience as well. Having an affinity towards villains, I truly loved Queen Aggravain’s performance, which was