Mary Rodgers, who wrote music for ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ and the book ‘Freaky Friday,’ dies

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Broadway icon Richard Rodgers, who found her own fame as composer of the 1959 musical “Once Upon a Mattress” and as the author of the book “Freaky Friday,” has died. She was 83.

Rodgers’ son, Alec Guettel, says she died Thursday at her home in Manhattan after a long illness.

Her 1959 hit “Once Upon a Mattress,” a musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson fable “The Princess and the Pea,” made a star of Carol Burnett.

Her other shows include “From A to Z,” a revue featuring her songs; “Hot Spot”; and “The Madwoman of Central Park West,” a one-person musical starring Phyllis Newman.