A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA

 


Erin Weaver as Pseudolus and Mike Millan as Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Photo credit: Christopher Mueller.

If there is even a sliver of a doubt as to what you will see in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (could “funny” be in the title of something that didn’t at least try for comedy?), by the time the opening number (“Comedy Tonight”) is over, any semblance of doubt will be vanquished. With Funny Thing, what you are told to expect you can bank on – particularly when the musical comedy is in the extremely capable hands of director/choreographer Matthew Gardiner and many of the regulars at Arlington’s Signature Theatre. Signature has been lauded as one of the premier venues in the country for musicals and has made much of its reputation on producing the works of Stephen Sondheim. Funny Thing is vintage Sondheim, the first Broadway production for which he wrote both the lyrics and the music, after writing noteworthy lyrics for his first two Broadway shows, West Side Story (music by Leonard Bernstein) and Gypsy (music by Jule Styne).

Funny Thing gave Sondheim his first music and lyrics show, but not necessarily critical acclaim: while the show won six 1963 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Author (for the very witty “book”) for Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, Sondheim’s score was overlooked for a nomination.

While Funny Thing is early Sondheim and does not possess the subtlety and richness of much of his later work, exemplified by Signature’s productions of Into the Woods in 2022 and Sweeney Todd and Pacific Overtures in 2023, the score includes much of Sondheim’s facile word-play and unexpected rhymes. While later Sondheim often turns dark, Funny Thing has no real substance: there is a plot, but it serves mostly to provide an opportunity for physical and verbal hijinks. Nothing high-brow here. As a graduate student, I worked with a visiting director who would have referred to this as “meringue”: there’s almost nothing there but air. That’s not meant as an insult: this is a show (and a production) that goes exactly where it wants in a way that will amuse and delight.

The play is loosely based on plays (or fragments of them) by Plautus (the program lists his life dates as c. 254 BCE – 184 BCE), one of few Roman era playwrights whose work has survived in any fashion. Theatre in the Roman age bears little relation to that of the Greeks, a few centuries earlier. Plautus’s The Menaechmi, a primary source, revolves around cases of mistaken identity of twins who have been separated and lost. Funny Thing includes the same, though it is more incidental than central to the plot. (Shakespeare took the same idea and doubled it, giving us two sets of identical twins in Comedy of Errors, recently produced by Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company.



Lawrence Redmond (Lycus), Mike Millan (Hysterium), Christopher Bloch (Senex), and Erin Weaver (Pseudolus) in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Photo credit: Daniel Rader.

Funny Thing centers more on the love between Hero, son of nobles, and Philia, a virgin who has wrongfully been taken as a courtesan by scrupulous-less procurer Lycus. When his parents (Senex and Domina) leave on a trip, they entrust slave Pseudolus with keeping the two apart. Pseudolus expects to be rewarded with his freedom. Disguises abound (at one point two characters are masquerading as Philia, with the real Philia also in the mix), doors open and close, and chases and a faux funeral ensue. Into this circus comes the braggart soldier Miles Gloriosus, who expects to claim Philia as his bride. Eventually, of course, identities and familial relationships are revealed and everyone gets what they deserve.

Gardiner manages to include some unexpected and very contemporary twists, particularly related to the sexual orientation and gender fluidity of the courtesans. Given what we now know about Roman society during this time, it is barely cause to lift an eyebrow.

As mentioned earlier, Gardiner’s cast includes some Signature stalwarts. Erin Weaver is not the first woman to take on the role of Pseudolus (Whoopi Goldberg replaced Nathan Lane in the most recent Broadway revival) and Pseudolus is not the only male role Weaver has taken on this year, having turned in a profoundly moving performance in Signature’s Private Jones this past spring. Her versatility apparently knows no bounds. Tracy Lynn Olivera delivers comedically and vocally as Domina, quite a change from the most recent role I have seen her play (Diana in Next to Normal at Round House Theatre). Signature regulars Christopher Bloch as Senex and Lawrence Redmond as Lycus acquit themselves with appropriate amounts of lechery and sleaziness, respectively. And Sherri L. Edelen is almost completely unrecognizable in her roles as Courtesan Vibrata and the doddering Erronius, milking her solitary trips across the stage for every possible laugh.

This is the second Signature show for Mike Millan, who demonstrates his comic flair as the put-upon slave Hysterium. Making their Signature debuts are Cameron Loyal as Miles Gloriosus and Kuhoo Verma as Philia. Loyal makes a physically imposing soldier with a strong baritone and Verma is the show’s secret weapon: not only is she a beautiful ingenue, she has terrific comic timing and a beautifully ethereal voice. I hope all three of these performers become part of the Signature family.

It (almost) goes without saying that musical director/conducto

r Jon Kalbfleisch and the 14 musicians under his baton bring Sondheim’s score to vibrant life.  Scenic designer Jimmy Stubbs (his first Signature show) and veteran designers Erik Teague (costumes), Jason Lyons (lighting), and Ann Nesmith (wigs) contribute to a physical production that is simultaneously whimsical, flexible, and beautiful.

I’m a bit late to the party on Funny Thing, but it continues at Signature through January 12. See it if you can.


The cast of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Photo credit: Daniel Rader.


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