It starred Sarah Jessica Parker as Princess Winnifred, Mary Lou Rosa as Queen Aggravain, David Aaron Baker as Dauntless, Lewis Cleale as Sir Harry, Heath Lamberts as the King, Lawrence Clayton as the Minstrel, David Hibbard as the Jester, Tom Alan Robbins as Master Merton and Jane Krakowski as Lady Larken.

[11] The musical opened Off-Broadway, produced by the Transport Group, at the Abrons Arts Center on December 13, 2015, for a limited run which ended on January 3, 2016.

Directed by Jack Cummings III, the cast featured Jackie Hoffman as Princess Winnifred, John Epperson as Queen Aggravain, Jessica Fontana as Lady Larken, David Greenspan as The King, and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka as The Minstrel.

Among the cast were Sutton Foster as Princess Winnifred, Michael Urie as Dauntless, Nikki Renée Daniels as Lady Larken, Cheyenne Jackson as Sir Harry, Harriet Sansom Harris as the Queen, David Patrick Kelly as the King, Francis Jue as the Wizard, and J. Harrison Ghee as the Jester.

New to the cast were Brooks Ashmanskas as the Wizard, Daniel Breaker as the Jester, Will Chase as Sir Harry, and Ana Gasteyer as Queen Aggravain.

[16] The show ran through November 30 and then transferred to the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles for a four-week engagement lasting from December 10, 2024 to January 5, 2025.

The production was videotaped in black and white in front of a live audience and featured Burnett, Bova, Gilford, and White from the original Broadway cast, as well as new principals Bill Hayes as the Minstrel, Shani Wallis as Lady Larken and Elliott Gould (in his first appearance on any screen) as the Jester.

[23] The character of Sir Harry was written out, and the Minstrel was rewritten to be Lady Larken's love interest, with the conflict concerning them being downplayed to a secret marriage.

This production, videotaped in color, included original Broadway cast members Burnett, Gilford and White, and also featured Bernadette Peters as Lady Larken, Ken Berry as Prince Dauntless, Ron Husmann as Sir Harry, Wally Cox as The Jester, and Lyle Waggoner as Sir Studley.

Since the parts of the Minstrel and the Wizard were cut from this adaptation, a new prologue was written with Burnett singing "Many Moons Ago" as a bedtime story.

[25] The third television version, which aired on December 18, 2005, on ABC in the United States as part of The Wonderful World of Disney and was released on DVD two days later, starred Carol Burnett as Queen Aggravain, Denis O'Hare as Prince Dauntless, Tom Smothers as King Sextimus, Tracey Ullman as Princess Winnifred, Zooey Deschanel as Lady Larken, and Matthew Morrison as Sir Harry.

[26] A prologue, cut from the DVD release, features a girl looking for Winifred, her favorite princess, at Disneyland, and meets a woman (Burnett) who tells her "the real story."

A fictional medieval kingdom in 15th-century Europe is ruled by the devious Queen Aggravain and the mute King Sextimus the Silent.

The Minstrel sings of the Princess and the Pea ("Many Moons Ago"), but reveals the story to be fake, though he knows the true tale because he was there when it happened.

The day the Minstrel arrives at court, the Queen, alongside her confidant, the Wizard, is testing Princess #12 with an unfair quiz.

To the Queen's delight, the princess misses the last question: "What was the middle name of the daughter-in-law of the best friend of the blacksmith who forged the sword that killed the Beast?"

The crisis escalates when the leading knight of the realm, Sir Harry, discovers that his girlfriend, Lady Larken, is pregnant.

Though Lady Larken says that she will run away so he will never have to face embarrassment and the loss of his station, Sir Harry decides that he will set out to find a princess himself ("In a Little While").

Then, after spilling a purple vase filled with fresh new baby's breath, Winnifred is caught cleaning the mess by Lady Larken who mistakes her for a chambermaid.

Later that night, the Queen leads the knights and ladies as they carry the twenty mattresses to Fred's room ("Quiet"), and she catches the Minstrel, the Jester, the King, and Larken (disguised in Dauntless' clothes) running away.

When Fred is finally ready for bed, the Queen tries to make her even more sleepy by attempting to hypnotize her with a hypnotic mirror, burning poppy and mandragora incense, forcing her to drink a sleeping draught, and finally bringing in the Nightingale of Samarkand to sing her to sleep ("Nightingale Lullaby"), but Winnifred is kept wide awake.

Dauntless is heartbroken until Winnifred drowsily stumbles into the throne room while still counting sheep; she hasn't slept a wink.

After the items are removed, Winnifred still has trouble sleeping until Dauntless takes the pea out from under the mattresses; she then falls asleep almost immediately, proving that she was indeed a true princess.