On a recent morning, the actress Jackie Hoffman sprawled on a bed costing thousands of dollars. She was at a Hästens showroom in the Flatiron district, lounging on a mattress covered in a tasteful checked throw that clashed apologetically with her bright pink puffer jacket and flowered socks. “There’s nothing like expensive,” she sighed. “Makes you want to sink right in.”

But she didn’t sink right in, and she didn’t look especially comfortable. Ms. Hoffman, who has a deliciously acerbic stage presence and a scalding sense of humor, doesn’t really do comfortable.

These days, she is typically found tossing and turning on far less luxurious cushions. Ms. Hoffman stars as the plucky if insomniac Princess Winnifred, the heroine of “Once Upon a Mattress,” the 1959 Mary Rodgers musical based on the story “The Princess and the Pea.” Now in previews in a revival by the Transport Group, it opens on Dec. 13 at the Abrons Arts Center.

Though Ms. Hoffman has enjoyed several eventful decades in theater, television and film, Winnifred is her first lead role. And she’ll be the first to tell you that she’s way too old for it. Not that she’s about to let it go anytime soon.