A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum resurrects characters and situations from Plautus, brings back Burlesque, and stuffs them into a musical comedy mold. The book, by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, makes the most of sightgags, puns, and other paraphanalia of low comedy. Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics move the show along tunefully and cleverly. And the cast at Agassiz is doing justice to this very funny show.

Director Tim Hunter has given Forum plenty of sight-gags and a Burlesque flavor, the two prerequisites for getting boffs. But you laugh hardest when the pace is fastest, and it moves like the Marx Brothers whenever Steve Kaplan, Arthur Friedman, Robert Bush, (or any combination of them), are on stage. Kaplan is the funniest Roman of them all, and he plays the conniving lead, Pseudolus, with deadly timing, a rubber face, a protean voice, and a Stoic endurance of pratfalls. His is a virtuoso performance, and at one point his delivery of a line stops the show cold. When he sings, there is Merman in his voice, or Rudy Vallee, or whatever will milk a laugh from a lyric. What he can't do with his voice, he does with body English, wiggles, or Cossack leaps.

Arthur Friedman, playing a ruined procurer, and Bob Bush as an hysterical slave, bring to their roles the high desperation and brisk timing which make farce funny.

Forum has seven Graces. One is huge-eyed Donna Poitras, who overcomes her thankless ingenue part with a lovely vibrato and a flair for playing a dumb blonde. The six girls in the chorus of courtesans have, as the French say, beaucoup de monde au balcon. Not only are they gorgeous, but they dance well. Rima Wolff, who choreographed their big number, has given them a bumper crop of grinds and shakes.

David Cornell is perfect as the braggart general -- very big and very bass. James Lardner, as the young love interest, has little poise and less animation, but he delivers a strong lyric. Leland Moss plays the part of the funny old lecher Senex as if he were not supposed to be old, lecherous, or funny. As Senex's wife, Gladys Smith has the right looks and voice, but she is a weak comedienne.

Director Hunter, though he has given the show the correct tone, has also apparently fudged on some of the blocking. There are times when the actors drift about shiftlessly, and at least two of the songs are staged so that they seem to have no point. The second act chase, which may improve with the run, is now too slow.

David Sloss does a beautiful job of keeping his twenty-three fine musicians together through the tricky orchestrations. Now all he has to do is keep them quiet, for they are much too loud, and although few lyrics get lost, the noise gets painful. Mutes on the brass and a lighter hand on the tympani might help. J.D. McLaughlin's set leaves a maximum amount of clear space for cavorting on the small Agassiz stage. The show is brightly lit, as comedy should be, and the costumes are clashingly colorful and good.

They say that St. Genesius, the patron saint of the theatre, was a Roman burlesque comic. He must have been watching over Forum--happy as a saint, that the proceeds will go to Radcliffe's charitable Grant-in-Aid; and pleased, as a pro, that this production is such a funny thing.