Today I am celebrating the musical that essentially made a star out of Carol Burnett, one of our greatest living comediennes. Once Upon a Mattress opened Off-Broadway in 1959 and was soon ushered to Broadway not long after its opening. The musical features a score by Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers), lyrics by Marshall Barer, and a book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Barer. It was musical version of fairy tale The Princess and the Pea, taking a slightly satirical poke at the story of a princess who must earn the right to marry a prince, by proving her royalty through a test cooked up by a controlling queen.