Fall 1992: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is based on the 27 plays of Titus Maccius Plautus, born around 254 B.C., that have survived him. At the time Forum was written, musicals had come to rely on performers who could sell a melody and set of lyrics, but who thought a punch line was a queue of people waiting for something to drink. Fewer and fewer roles demanded comic skills. When a slave in Forum slips into a gown, plops a blond wig on his head and pretends that he is a fetching young thing in order to deceive an unwitting male, we are witnessing a piece of theatrical shtick that is now in its 2,000th year. Other characters introduced by Plautus and incorporated into the show include the dirty old man who runs after maidens with only the dimmest memory of what's to be done should he actually catch one, and the stumbling, doddering geezer barely able to see or to hear, but with an infinite capacity to make a fool of himself. No matter how childishly and absurdly its characters behave, audiences have always been able to look upon them with forgiveness and a good deal of affection. Altogether, Forum became a show that Time Magazine described after its opening night as "good clean, dirty fun."

 

Cast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pit

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Production Staff