University of Virginia Library

Disturbed Slumber

Their vehicle is a gently
ingratiating comic treatment of the
fairy tale about the girl who proves
herself a true princess when a pea,
placed beneath her twenty
mattresses, disturbs her slumber. In
the show, the princess turns out to
be a likeable little swamp-rat
nicknamed "Fred," who has been
recruited as a possible bride for the
not-so-smart Prince Dauntless,
whose connubial hopes are
constantly being thwarted by his
loud-mouth mother and her
preposterous tests to determine the
true color of princesses' blood.

Mary Rodgers' (Richard's
daughter) music is not in the class
with her dad's, but it is serviceable,
and Marshall Baker's lyrics always
seem appropriate. The book, which
was written by Mr. Baker, Jay
Thompson, and Dean Fuller, is
sometimes just plain silly, but,
more often, humorous and witty.

The show's basic problem -
painfully obvious yet far from fatal
- lies not so much in the material
as in the original concept. The
simple truth is that not enough
happens in the story-to fill two acts
of a musical comedy. "Fred"
arrives on the scene about a third of
the way through the first act and
the show ends with her passing the
sensitivity test. Thus, we have an
unbelievable amount of stretching
and padding. One of the most
popular numbers in the second act
has absolutely nothing whatsoever
to do with the rest of the show.