Sutton Foster won’t be having a Great White Way Christmas this year. Instead of spending the winter on Broadway, she and the cast of “Once Upon a Mattress” will be bedding down in L.A. for the holidays. Won’t she miss it? “I love being in LA, especially during the holidays. And it just sounded to me like a natural fit. So I was like, ‘I’m game. Let’s go!’” Foster’s origin story is the stuff of Broadway legend: As an understudy, she jumped in to cover for the star of “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” and then nabbed a Tony Award for her performance. She scored another Tony Award for her performance in “Anything Goes” and was nominated for five more Tony Awards. In recent years, she’s starred in “The Music Man” and “Sweeney Todd,” and this year, she reprised her performance as Winnifred the Woebegone, a.k.a. Fred, in “Once Upon A Mattress.” Center Theatre Group just launched the West Coast premiere of “Once Upon a Mattress,” the charming and goofy musical that made Carol Burnett a star in 1959, which will exclusively play at the Ahmanson Theatre Dec. 10 through Jan. 5. The L.A. run will star Foster, “Shrinking” star Michael Urie in the role of Prince Dauntless, alongside “Saturday Night Live” alum Ana Gasteyer as Queen Aggravain. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea,” “Once Upon a Mattress” follows a bold and silly swamp princess as she shocks and delights a repressed kingdom. This new adaptation is by Emmy Award winner Amy Sherman-Palladino, known for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Gilmore Girls” and directed by Tony Award nominee and Drama League Award winner Lear deBessonet, known for “Into the Woods.”  We spoke with Foster hours before the curtain lifted on opening night, and she says she is both exhilarated and curious to see how a Los Angeles audience will respond to the show. Throughout our conversation, costars and stage techs popped into her dressing room, bustling about the theater before their West Coast premiere. The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Q. Bringing the Broadway cast of “Once Upon A Mattress” to L.A. is a real Christmas gift for Angeleno theater fans. How did this come about? We did the show earlier this year at New York City Center as part of their Encore! series. When they decided to transfer it to Broadway, there was interest about bringing it here to the Ahmanson and I was like, ‘I’m in!’ I have a lot of friends here. Q. You’ve said this is the first time you’ve played “a clown” and that it’s been a scary aspect of portraying Princess Winnifred aka Fred. Can you elaborate on the ways in which this role is such a departure from roles you’ve taken on before? The show is so joyful, so funny, so witty. It has a ton of physical comedy, a lot of slapstick. There are moments on the stage where I’m alone in silence, without words or music, just telling a story with physicality, and I’ve never had that experience before. It feels to me that the world needs to laugh, so it’s been really great to be putting something out into the world that’s so joyful and silly. For two-and-a-half hours, you can just giggle and be a kid again. Q. You mentioned that playing Fred requires some serious physical comedy. How have you prepared for the physical nature of this role, and have you injured yourself flopping around that stack of mattresses night after night? I’m a woman approaching 50, and I still think of myself as 25. So it’s definitely the most physical role I’ve ever played, and I’ve been so lucky to play so many amazing different types of characters that tap dance for eight minutes, or dance and do all sorts of things. I definitely use my body in a different way. When I was in New York, I had an amazing support system: a physical therapist and an acupuncturist. I work with a trainer, and I have not been injured, knock on wood. But definitely, it’s about keeping me ahead so that I’m not behind the eight ball . . . I’m surrounded by my B-12 vitamins and protein smoothies. I’ve got all the things to keep me going. Q. The entertainment business often likes to put people, especially women, in a box. But what is it about this show, which was written by an incredibly talented woman and made a star out of an incredibly talented woman, that has been so attractive to multi-faceted performers like yourself? The material is timeless. What I love about “Once Upon a Mattress,” which was written in 1959, is that it celebrates this timeless story about a woman celebrating her uniqueness. Princess Fred is not in a box. She completely accepts herself. It’s a theme that I respond to, just as someone navigating being a woman in 2024. And how awesome that I get to I have a seven-year-old daughter, and she gets to watch the show. I’ve heard from other parents who are sitting there with their daughters going, ‘Man, I am so happy to sit here to watch my daughter watch you be so unabashedly silly and so goofy, and it’s celebrated.’ One thing I’m also proud of: it’s not like at the end of the show, she finds love, she comes out in a pretty dress and now she’s a princess. No! She comes out exactly how she’s always been, she doesn’t need to transform into anything. That’s my favorite. Q. This is the role that made Carol Burnett a star, and I know you’ve long revered Burnett, who has been vocal about her mutual admiration of you. How does it feel to be passed the baton and to make this role your own? I grew up watching “The Carol Burnett Show.” She is someone that I have admired my entire life. As a young kid, I saw a goofy, funny, tall lady with big teeth on my TV, and I was like, ‘That’s me!’ Then to meet her, and the fact that she even knows my name! I got to sit down with her. I was trying to be present, and really take it in. She was holding my hand and giving me her blessing. It’s surreal. If I tried to be Carol Burnett, it goes against who Fred is. It’s like the whole idea about Princess Winifred is your authenticity, being yourself, fearlessness. I did cheat and watch Carol Burnett on the first “Once Upon a Mattress” television special. I did watch her mattress ballet because I wanted to see what she did. So I ended up stealing a couple of things from that. But other than that, I just jumped in, and started it from my own idea of what I thought this character was. Carol Burnett lives in California, so I’m hoping that she gets to see the production. They asked me if I wanted to know when she was here, and I was like, I want to know because I want to know while I’m on stage, that I’m performing for my idol. Q. I told a theater friend of mine that I was interviewing you and he shrieked, “She’s the Meryl Streep of musical theater!” What does it mean to you to be considered a legend in your own lifetime? I’m undeniably human, so hearing that makes me laugh. I try to find that balance of being ridiculously grateful that I get to do what I do and also be incredibly proud of everything I’ve accomplished. I know how fleeting it is, and I hope with every fiber of my being that I get to continue to do this for as long as I want to. One of the things I admire about Meryl Streep is that she’s been able to play so many different types of things and I feel like I’ve been afforded that in my career as a theater actress, and I’m constantly curious about the things that will challenge and push me as an actor and so it’s been really fun to play a character like Winifred. With the pressure, I’m a pseudo aware of it, but I still feel like the 15-year-old who’s hoping to get cast in the high school musical . . . Every time I walk into Times Square and head to my Broadway show I realize how lucky I am. The pressure is still there, because I’m a human being, and I don’t want to let anybody down. What if I suck and the show closes? What if I can’t pull it off? Those things don’t go away. But I have to remind myself I have been doing this a really long time and I put the hours in. Q. You are a theater actress but you’ve also worked in film and television, I was especially obsessed with “Younger,” which you also worked with Michael Urie on. How does starring in a show like that which ran for four seasons compare with starring on Broadway? I would love to do more TV . . . I mean, absolutely, are you kidding? I learned so much. Now I’m back doing theater. It’s a completely different beast. Nothing is as hard as theater, eight shows a week. “Younger” we shot for four months out of the year and you get to play a character that’s constantly evolving, and every day is something new. And in theater, you do the exact same thing over and over again, but you get the opportunity to keep mining things so they actually complement each other. Q. Do you have any pre-show or post-show rituals? Funnily enough, I talk to myself in the mirror. I look at myself in the mirror, and I usually write things all over my mirror. But I usually look myself in the eye, and I’ll tell myself that I love myself. And then I’ll go to the stage, and the ensemble is waiting for that first number. There’s an ensemble member, Darius [Wright], and I always squeeze his knee. I grab Richard’s [Riaz Yoder] hand. Daniel Beeman tells me to have a good play. And then Daniel Breaker comes over and he’s like, ‘Let’s have fun.’ Every single show.