Burnett has graduated from the role of princess to that of queen, as well as executive producer.

Burnett has graduated from the role of princess to that of queen, as well as executive producer.
By KATHY BLUMENSTOCK
WASHINGTON POST
nce upon a time, Carol Burnett played a princess. The royal role was a musical hit on Broadway, later adapted twice for TV. Now, more than 40 years after Burnett's original Princess Winnifred first sought the hand of Prince Dauntless, a new version of "Once Upon a Mattress" again stars Burnett -- this time in a very different role.
"I had always thought it would be fun to co-produce and be the queen," Burnett said. "It's like a full circle for me."
Burnett, 73, plays the domineering Queen Aggravain, who concocts tests and trials that trip every potential princess vying for the hand of her handsome but meek son (Denis O'Hare). Then the spunky Winnifred (Tracey Ullman) shows up, determined to succeed despite the queen's attempts to thwart her.
"There is a whole new generation, maybe two or three generations, who have never seen it," Burnett said. "This is the kind of piece a lot of people know because they have done it in their community theater."
Fairy tale
Filmed in Vancouver in summer 2004, the story is drawn from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea." Kathleen Marshall choreographed and directed the new production.
The cast includes Tom Smothers as King Sextimus, who is mute because of a witch's curse. "It is strange to have Tommy Smothers not speaking," Burnett said. "But as he did on the TV show with his brother, he darts his eyes from side to side, with that sly look. He's funny without a word."
When Ullman signed on to play the part made famous by Burnett in the 1959 Broadway musical, "it all fell into place," Burnett said. "Tracey has a voice. She's a trained dancer and singer, and she's funny. Originally, the way all the networks do, they wanted to have a 19-year-old, or someone who's a big star who could do all of that. And you can't get that."
Ullman, 45, had never seen a production of the show. "It was on Broadway the year I was born," she said. "Carol must have made this magical, with that great voice. She still has the deportment and energy of a 20-year-old, with this incredible straight back and this shingled hair, and when she does that Minnie Riperton high note, it's amazing."
For Ullman, the production's highlight was "those blokes throwing me up in the air" during one of her song-and-dance numbers, "Shy," in which Princess Winnifred ironically sings of her demure ways.
"When you have 15 sweaty Canadian men, and they all smell so good, I just loved being lifted up in the air like that," she said. "I had to get pretty fit again to do all that dancing, and to be in a production where people are really doing things -- dancing, singing and acting."
Ullman said it was most difficult to perform the mattress scene, in which Princess Winnifred tosses and turns on a tower of 20 mattresses with a pea tucked under the bottom one. "I went completely nuts. I look like a Shih Tzu dog," she said. "The feathers were in my lungs."
Ullman marveled at Burnett's elaborate costumes, designed by Bob Mackie.
"They were fantastic but so heavy," Ullman said. Burnett "was standing there in one of those headdresses shaped like a pretzel, and she had welts on her shoulders from it."
'Off with her head!'
Burnett said the bejeweled headpieces were attached to her wigs "so I could say, 'Off with her head!' during rehearsals."
The queen's colorful costumes "zipped up and down so I could just step into them," she said. "No Velcro, but Bob knew what I wanted. He said he saw her as a cross between a medieval Joan Crawford, Mae West and a drag queen."
Mackie said Burnett had her costume changes down to five minutes.
"There is a lot of waiting around filming, and you could wait an hour," he said. "This way she was all made up and could jump into it. The queen is very overdressed, evil and self-centered -- as all wicked queens should be."
Mackie used velvets, brocades, fake furs and beading, "anything opulent that gives that wicked-queen look." Mackie, who has worked with Burnett for much of her career, said that during an earlier incarnation of the show, Burnett had said, "Next time I do this, I'll have to play the queen."
"And that was 25 years ago," Mackie said, "so the time is right for Carol to be queen."