A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

This was the first time I have seen this show “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” written by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Not being familiar with the story or most of the music except for the opening number, “A Comedy Tonight”, I wasn’t sure what to expect, however I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent laugh out loud production with its clever and well timed humor. The show had two very talented ladies at the helm namely Director Diane Simmons and Producer Jackie Creer. It was first performed on Broadway in 1962, then opened in the West End of London in 1963 with Frankie Howard in the lead, I now see that the premise of this show was borrowed for his hit TV series “Up Pompeii”.
Set in a street situated in ancient Rome we find three adjacent houses, the center house belongs to Senex, who lives with his wife Domina, their son Hero, and several slaves, including Pseudolus who looks after Hero and head house slave Hysterium. One of the neighboring houses is owned by Marcus Lycus, who buys and sells beautiful women; the third house belongs to Erronius, who is abroad searching for his long-lost children (stolen in infancy by pirates).
The story centers around the antics of the Roman slave Pseudolus, who would do anything, including cheating and conniving to gain his freedom from his domineering mistress, Domina  and his master, the henpecked Senex. Their son Hero confides in Pseudolus that he has fallen in love with Philia a virgin and one of the courtesans from the House of Lycus next door, then one day, his parents Senex and Domina go on a trip and leave Pseudolus in charge of Hero so Pseudolus grabs the opportunity and promises to help Hero win Philia's love in exchange for his freedom. But unfortunately Philia has been sold to a famous Legion Captain a soldier called  Miles Gloriosus, who is expected to come to collect her anytime. Much to Hero’s and Pseudolus disappointment she insists that, even though she is in love with Hero, she must honor her contract with the Captain, for "that is the way of a courtesan”. From this point on confusion reigns with lots of very funny situations, which include mistaken identities, swapping of cloths and gender and farcical comedy, needless to say general mayhem ensues.
The show was narrated by Pseudolus played outstanding by Paul Cohen who was perfect in the role, he told the story brilliantly and had an excellent friendly rapport with the audience keeping them up to date and helping them make sense of the chaos happening on stage, while using lots of wit and confidence along with some great comic timing, he held the audiences attention at all times.Chris Bailey as Hero and Bex Dixon as Philia worked perfectly with each other, their characterizations complemented each other really well. They both had lovely comic timing and sang excellently together as well as in their solo numbers. Another stand out performance came from Ian Hawyes  as Hysterium  the head household slave, who through the use of blackmail, was Pseudolus’s unwilling ally. Ian had excellent comic timing, a good singing voice, and worked very well with Paul as Pseudolus. Their domineering mistress, Domina (Allison Fox) and their master, the henpecked Senex (Chris Higson) complemented each other well while having their roles spot on, you could feel and see Senex’s confusion as he inadvertently gets involved in all the chaos by just knocking three times on his own front door. John Matthias thunders into the action with his lovely rich singing voice which suited the part of the proud Legion Captain  Miles Gloriosus wonderfully. Other good  and important performances came from Richard Leigh as Marcus Lycus, the owner of the courtesan house and Mike Wickham as Eronius who suddenly arrives home after being away for years searching for his lost children, so Pseudolus sent him to run round the hills of Rome to get him out of the way. Also mixed into the mayhem we have the wonderful Soothsayer played by Caroline Budge shouting predictions of doom and foreboding . I must mention Matt Newns- Smith who played the roles of Eunuch and Soldier who’s ability to come on and off stage at different locations as different characters made me think I was seeing things at times, he also had some great dance moves.

The chorus of Proteans supported the principle cast very well producing some lovely different characters of their own and the Courtesans performed some very entertaining well thought out choreography which was tailored towards  each of their their characters.All the chorus and dancers played an important role in the success of this show, well done Louisa Watson Chorus Master and Choreographer Heather Hodgson.The band led by musical director Dave Dossett played expertly and supported the cast well, playing at just the right level so that the cast could be heard. 
The excellent set of a Roman street was designed by Rose Creer and  Jackie Creer  and looked authentic,well done to all the set builders and set painters, props  and all the stage crew led by stage manager Stephen Pilkington. Sound and lighting worked very nicely complementing  all the action on stage, also Costumes we’re just right for this production,  they were very colourful and applicable to the subject matter, the setting of the show and the characters, adding authenticity to the production. I’m sure a lot of thought had gone into getting them just right. well done Jackie Creer and Helen Dickinson.
At the end of the show Hero gets the girl and Pseudolus gets his freedom.It was evident that everyone on and off stage had put in an incredible amount of hard work to bring this outstanding very funny musical to the stage, it certainly was “Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy 
tonight”.
Congratulations to  all the production team and everyone involved in bringing this show to the stage, the audience appeared to be really enjoying themselves.

Thank you very much for inviting us, I hope to see you again soon

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