The Princess and the Pea performed at Boston Center for the Arts.

There are many words that could be used to describe the Animus Ensembles’ production of “Once Upon a Mattress,” but the most appropriate one seems to be “fabulous.”

The production, which is performed at the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, takes the question of happily ever after and adds a new, modern and extremely relevant spin to it: a gay one.

The story is a playful twist on Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Princess and the Pea,” peppered with subplots both sexual and Oedipal. Prince Dauntless (Todd Sandstrom) is still a bachelor, due to the interference of his mother, Queen Aggravain (Kate deLima) who requires that any potential bride pass a strenuous royalty test. Dauntless’ father, King Sextimus (Eric Ruben), is unable to help his son, because of a lingering curse that left him mute. 

And an annoying addition to the rule: none of the lords and ladies of the kingdom are able to marry until Dauntless does, much to their frustration. The show opens with the twelfth potential bride undergoing her test, which she sadly fails. Enter Winnifred – royalty from a nearby kingdom, who is so eager to meet Dauntless that instead of waiting for the drawbridge, he swims the moat.

That’s right. He. In a stroke of brilliance, director John Ambrosino cast the enormously talented Brent Reno to play the role of Winifred the Woebegone, putting a man in the role that was played on Broadway by Carol Burnett and Sarah Jessica Parker.

However, this casting did not require any changes in the script of the show, however, which is ripe with sexual undertones and not-so-subtle double entendres. This show, simply put, is hilarious, and this cast presents the humor in a manner that is mature and refined, yet somehow still flamboyant.