By Lethbridge Herald on October 21, 2025.
Joe Manio
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Lethbridge Musical Theatre is ready to raise the curtain on its version of a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale.
From Oct. 23 to Nov. 1, LMT will present “Once Upon a Mattress,” its version of Anderson’s classic “The Princess and the Pea.”
The production is directed by Laurie Mitchell who has 30 years of high school directing experience.
“Once Upon a Mattress” is described as a fun, family-friendly “twisted fairytale” version of Anderson’s story about a prince susl eeking a real princess to marry.
The musical has a cast of 24 performers as well as seven orchestra members. Two special performances are planned in which audience members will be encouraged to dress in costumes for a chance at winning prizes and treats from various companies and businesses.
An Oct. 25 matinee at 1:30 p.m. will be what LMT calls a “fun fairt yale fete” with an intermission costume contest. An evening performance is also scheduled that night. Two shows are also scheduled for Nov. 1.
The Oct. 31 Halloween show will start at 8 p.m. to give people a chance to take their youngsters out trick-or-treating on the Friday night.
With the exception of the special performances, showtimes are 7:30 p.m. at the Yates Centre.
There will be no performances on Oct. 26-28.
Working with Mitchell is a production team including musical director Monica Baczuk, choreographer Gerry Unger, costume designer Amanda Epp, set designer Les Burkes, stage manager Nancy Graham and production manager Linda Lindsay.
LMT has been part of the city’s cultural scene since 1964 when it staged “Finian’s Rainbow” and “Oklahoma.” Shows were staged every year through 2015. It went on hiatus until 2019 and after two years of dark in 2020-21, it returned in 2022 with “9 to 5” and has continued to entertain audiences since.
Director Mitchell said after doing “The Full Monty and “Footloose” in 2023 and 2024 respectively, the LMT board was looking at doing something more family-friendly but also avant-garde.
“Once Upon a Mattress” opened again last year on Broadway and “I went that would be a fun script to look at. So I got a perusal copy and I read through and I went ‘I have a lot of ideas for this’ because I love things that are fantasy/fairytale. It gives you a lot of leeway on how you’re going to do things,” said Mitchell.
The LMT board asked for directors’ ideas and pitches and now the show is becoming a reality in coming weeks.
“It’s a fun, twisted fairytale. Does it have some morals and lessons? Yes. It certainly does. Most literature does if you will. And it certainly has the idea of you can’t just take over and be bossy and have everyone like you because then it won’t that way. And Queen Agravain kind of figures that out eventually and her husband then gets angry. Everybody likes an underdog story and this is definitely kind of an underdog story” because Princess Winifred’s full name is Princess Winifred the Woebegone and she comes from swamps, said Mitchell.
“And so she’s not your typical fairytale princess and that’s part of the twist – it shows you that you don’t have to be perfect to be a good person,” said Mitchell.
And the fairytale also has at its heart love and romance, said the director.
Tickets can be purchased online through LMT’s website or through the visitlethbridge.com website or in person at the Yates ticket centre.
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