"Once Upon a Mattress" and "tick, tick...BOOM!" or, the Beauty of a Two-Week Run
Short and mostly sweet.
Happy February! This week, we’re talking about shows with short runs. What are the possibilities when a show only runs for two weeks?
For my first shows of 2024, I saw New York City Center’s production of “Once Upon a Mattress” and the Kennedy Center’s “tick, tick...BOOM!”, both of which are special performances running just through the last week of January and first week of February.
It’s no secret that creating a lasting show is rare. Few shows stay for years: “Phantom of the Opera” ran for 35 years; “Wicked” just celebrated its 25th anniversary. More often, others close in a matter of months. In the last few weeks, both “Harmony” and “How to Dance in Ohio,” two new original musicals, announced they were closing after just opening in the fall. It’s a big risk to go to Broadway, and even harder to be profitable — you need the exact right mix of the right material, casting, production level, audience, marketing, and pricing to make it work.
The beauty of the two-week run, then, is that you don’t need everything to go right. With such limited time, there are tangible advantages: you have the exclusivity built into your marketing. You can do crazier physical feats because your cast doesn’t need to sustain it for months. You can also get bigger names because they only need to commit to two weeks of showtime. For the most part, both shows I saw this week used those to their advantage — and I think they’re just right for two weeks of fame.
First up was “Once Upon a Mattress,” part of New York City Center’s “Encores!” series. “Encores!” are concert staging revivals of musical theater classics that focus on The Encores! Orchestra. All of them are limited runs that cast top stars.
How I found out about it: Instagram, I think! Posting cast announcements always gets me intrigued.
Why I went: The cast. I was particularly excited to see Sutton Foster, Michael Urie, and J. Harrison Ghee. I’ve also never seen this musical despite it being a “classic” and a regular contender for our high school musical.
How I got tickets: New York City Center Access Club! You get tickets to their shows for $28, or $35 with fees.
“Once Upon a Mattress” was fun and joyful. This classic musical is a retelling of the story of The Princess of the Pea, where a prince’s mother makes princesses go through rigorous tests to see if they’re suitable to marry the prince.
New York City Center’s production of “Once Upon a Mattress” makes use of its two-week run in one of the best ways: it’s focused on feats. There are literal technical feats, from the wizard’s fiery magic tricks that made the audience gasp, to the comical costuming on Sutton Foster — she pulls out not only some sort of woodland creature from her hair, but also has leeches attached to her back. The most appealing feats to me, though, were the ones from the cast. Michael Urie, as a hilariously childish Prince Dauntless, essentially throws himself into the set when he’s moping to his mother. Sutton Foster, who plays Princess Winnifred, is quirky and crazy, and she fully leans into it. It feels like she’s doing a workout class on stage. She runs around, does a cartwheel, and jumps and lands in a split.. At one point she does a keg stand. It’s impossible not to admire the effort.
Because of Sutton Foster’s feats, I felt myself comparing everything else to those moments of pure adrenaline and fun. While I loved hearing both Nikki Renée Daniels and Cheyenne Jackson in their roles as Lady Larkin and Sir Harry, their numbers were very plain with minimal staging. Harriet Harris was a funny and shrill queen, but her singing voice wasn’t up to par.
The musical has been updated by Amy Sherman Pallindo (of “Gilmore Girls” and “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), but it seemingly still has the same bones. It rings of “classic” musical theater in the embellished duets and quirky rhyming lines. While they’re entertaining, many of the songs feel random and don’t move the plot at all. I wanted to root for J. Harrison Ghee’s Jester, but their Act II number felt completely out of place, giving random backstory to a character who has served as a fun narrator and plot orchestrator the rest of the show.
While “Encores!” has been the site of Broadway transfers, like “Into the Woods,” I’m not sure I’m rooting for this one to go to Broadway. It’s perfect for what it is: a fun, short run of something happy and exciting.
A few days after traveling to midtown for “Once Upon a Mattress,” I headed to DC to see my first show at the Kennedy Center (and my first DC show!). This was “tick, tick...BOOM!”, also a two-week run as part of the Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage program.
How I found out about it: Either social media (again!) or the Kennedy Center website.
Why I went: It’s one of my goals this year to see more shows outside of New York, and I really wanted to try to make a DC show. Plus, this cast and direction really enticed me — I love Denée Benton and was excited to see Grey Henson in a non-narrator, non-purely comedic role. Neil Patrick Harris also directed!
How I got tickets: StubHub. I spent a long time trying to find discount tickets for this show, including signing up for The Kennedy Center’s MyTix program for people 18-30 years old, but no dice — the theater didn’t offer discounts to this show through the program. I’m only a little annoyed considering the show directly refers to the inaccessibility of the theater (the protagonist complains that $50 is an expensive Broadway ticket, and the cheapest tickets to this performance were over $100).
I’m wrestling with “tick, tick...BOOM!” While it was definitely entertaining — with some incredible solo performances — the production didn’t fully hold up for me, especially after enjoying the movie version of the show last year.
“Tick, tick...BOOM!” tells the semi-autobiographical tale of Jonathan Larson, the composer, lyricist, and playwright most well-known for “Rent.” The musical follows Jon, an aspiring composer, as he approaches 30. He’s faced with universal, dreadful questions: should he continue following a passion that hasn’t yet seen success? Is it better to sell out or keep pursuing a dream? When is it time to make these big life decisions? How do we avoid being left behind? Much of the musical focuses on these reflections, painted with interactions with two other main characters: his girlfriend, Susan, a dancer who’s considering leaving New York to teach; and Michael, his old roommate, a former actor who has pivoted to go into marketing.
Neil Patrick Harris’ production of “tick, tick...BOOM!” opens the original staging to something bigger. At first, the show was a solo “rock monologue” that Jonathan Larson performed in the early 1990s. The Off-Broadway production, which premiered after Jonathan Larson died at just 35, opened the story to add two other characters, Susan and Michael. At the Kennedy Center, the show continued to grow: this production also featured four ensemble members, who not only fill out the show’s music, but Jon’s life. These members play his agent, parents, customers at the diner Jon works at, Michael’s coworkers, and more.
For a theater as large as the Kennedy Center, adding more people helps fill the stage and sound; however, the technical elements counteract this. The set is minimalistic, mostly moving elements the actors often spin around as part of their choreography. Projections and lighting do most of the work place-setting. Sometimes, they were really effective. There’s a projection of the Georges Seurat painting that inspired “Sunday in the Park with George” at the end of the show’s song “Sunday.” Jon’s face is also projected close-up during many of his monologue moments, which was particularly helpful as we were sitting close to the last row. Other times, the projections and lights were cheesy, like “I love NY” logos and almost distracting colorful shapes dancing around the stage.
Where this production shines is in the solo performances. Each of the show’s main actors has a singular song that gives them the spotlight. “Real Life” was an emotional, heartbreaking song from Grey Henson, who successfully breaks out of the shell of purely comedic roles; “Why” was an engaging, captivating performance from Brandon Uranowitz; Deneé Benton’s “Come to Your Senses” quite literally brought the house down. I think we applauded for over two minutes — that performance alone may have been worth the ticket.
That’s what the Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage shows are supposed to do best: deliver Broadway stars to the DC area in these short, exclusive runs. They fulfilled their promise, partly — not in production, but in the star performances.