One of the most beloved musical comedies
”
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
”
will be performed at the Western Stage starting Saturday at 8
p.m.
One of the most beloved musical comedies “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” will be performed at the Western Stage starting Saturday at 8 p.m.
“A Funny Thzng Happened on the Way to the Forum” is a bawdy, burlesque, vaudevillian romp through ancient Rome. Packed with classic comedy routines and vintage Sondheim songs, this 1962 Broadway hit won six Tony awards including best musical.
Sam Linder Cadillac-Honda-Oldsmobile in Salinas is sponsoring the production to benefit this year’s Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.
The play will be performed every Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with a matinee on Sundays at 2 p.m. The play will run through July 13 at the Hartnell College Performing Arts Center in Salinas
This classic farce was the brainchild of playwright Burt Shevelove’s studies of Plautus while a graduate student at Yale Drama School. Plautus innovated the art of comedy by turning from the stale dramas of gods and goddesses, and focusing on the trials and tribulations of the common man. or what many audiences today may recognize as the situation comedy.
His plays have inspired writers for the last 2,000 years. Everyone recognizes his parade of stock characters: the crafty slave, the self-infatuated warrior, the henpecked husband, the dominating matron, the love struck lad, the dirty old man whose forgotten what to do with a waman, and the dim-witted virgin.
His comic conventions are also instantly recognizable: stand-up comedy, malapropisms, tongue twisters, insults, double entendre, slapstick, disguise, mistaken identity, mime, and cross dressing.
Plautus’ bag of characters and gags have influenced everyone from William Shakespeare to playwrights Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove.
They mix it all into the stew that is “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
Gelbart and Shevelove also continued to have vital careers after Forum. Shevelove directed a number of shows on Broadway including Hallelujah, Baby!, No, No, Nanette, and a 1972 revival of Forum.
Gelbart co-wrote the smash hit City of Angels, The Conquering Hero, and Sly Fox. Gelbart’s most public credit, however, is his work on the classic 70s television show M A S H
Audiences will recognize the classic songs of Stephen Sondheim whose music is an indispensable component of the play. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” was the first musical for which Sondheim wrote both the music and the lyrics. It launched one of theatre’s most successful careers.
Sondheim went on to write classics like “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd,” ” Follies, Sunday in the Park with George” and “Assassins.” Legend has it that the show’s opening number “Comedy Tonight” was a last minute addition. It was a gamble that paid off. The classic tune sets the tone for the entire play.
The list of actors who have stepped in the shoes of the wily slave Pseudolus is like reading a who’s who of American Theatre. Zero Mostel created the role in 1962, but the part has been played by the likes of Mickey Rooney, Milton Berle, Jose Ferrer, Phil Silvers, Nathan Lane, and Whoopie Goldberg.
The Western Stage is in its 29th season of performances with an exciting line up of shows.
The theatrical line-up includes the rornantic comedy “Prelude to a Kiss” which runs through June 22 in the Studio Theater.
In July, the laughter continues there with Eugene ONeill’s only comedy “Ah, Wilderness.”
Other shows in production this season include “Cabaret,” the world premiere of Victor Villasenor’s “Rain of Gold,” “A Doll’s House,” ” How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and the holiday favorite “A Christmas Carol: Scrooge & Marley.”
