A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

This production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum from the Watch This company is delightful entertainment – great performances, polished direction and songs you can remember the next day (and longer).  Watch This is a company entirely devoted to Sondheim musicals and their last production, Into the Woods, was superb in every way.

After the success of West Side Story (for which Sondheim wrote the lyrics) on Broadway in 1957, music theatre writer Burt Shevelove complained about the absence of ‘low brow comedy’.  Turning to tales by Roman satirist and farceur Plautus (around 200 BCE), teaming up with Stephen Sondheim and Sondheim’s pal Larry Gelbart, the (low brow) result was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – the first show for which Sondheim wrote music and lyrics. 

And here, from the moment the wonderfully engaging Charmaine Gorman, as the cunning slave and narrator Pseudolus, steps on stage, we know we are in good hands.  In the opening number, ‘Comedy Tonight’, those low brow intentions are announced.  Pseudolus, and then the whole company, join in telling us all the things this show is not. 

Nothing with kings, nothing with crowns;

Bring on the lovers, liars and clowns.

Old situations, new complications,

Nothing portentous or polite;

Tragedy tomorrow,

Comedy tonight!

The plot hinges on the hapless Hero (Milo Hartill) the son of Pseudolus’ master Senex (Cathy Woodhouse), and his love for virgin courtesan Philia (Mel O-Brien) in the brothel, the House of Lycus (Sarahlouise Younger) across the street.  Unfortunately, Philia has already been sold to the mighty warrior Miles Gloriosus (Luisa Scrofani).  Nevertheless, Pseudolus makes a deal: if he can secure this girl for Hero, Hero will grant him his freedom.  Freedom!  The rest – with numerous twists and turns, obstacles and reversals – follows from that. 

Director Melanie Hillman, however, has a subversive concept – and it works.  The cast here is a hundred per cent female or female identifying.  But the entire and very professional cast plays it absolutely straight (well, as straight as comedy allows – and forget the fourth wall).  Any reservations you may have about the gender switches melt away in seconds.  Note the use of masculine pronouns above.  That’s because not a word of the text has been changed. 

Brecht said he wanted his actors to perform like a spectator describing a traffic accident. That is, playing the characters and subtly commenting on them at the same time. That’s what happens here – but without at all spoiling the comedy – in fact, adding to it. 

Take, for instance, the hugely talented comedian and cabaret artist Mel O’Brien as Philia – Hero’s profoundly stupid – but ‘beautiful’ - love object.  What O’Brien does with this is to take stupid to a whole new level, and beautiful in another direction, thus undercutting, making ridiculous and entirely arbitrary the ideas of ‘love’ and ‘romance’.  As for Hero, Milo Hartill makes ‘him’ a floppy puppy and spoiled brat and about as stupid as Philia. 

Cathy Woodhouse adds another layer too to the lascivious Senex as a woman singing the delicious ‘Everybody Ought to Have a Maid’.  Diminutive Luisa Scrofani renders mighty and unbelievably conceited warrior Miles Gloriosus’ male vanity not just funny but utterly ludicrous.  Kristie Nguy plays Miles’ soldiers all by herself – plus all the courtesans from the House of Lycus – with such panache that she gets applause every time she appears.  For some light and shade, Sophie Weiss’ suddenly touches our hearts as neglected wife Domina. 

Meanwhile, the band, under the direction of Trevor Jones, performs at just the right level (unlike some other recent musicals) so that the tunes and lyrics are absolutely clear, and the music never overwhelm the singers.  Sarah Tulloch manages to suggest the three houses the plot requires on a very small stage with also an imaginative use of ‘classical’ statues and columns.  Everything flows along without a hitch under Melanie Hillman’s very sure and imaginative direction.  When Intermission comes (at a cliff-hanger moment of course), we can’t wait for the show to continue.  

If you don’t like Sondheim’s music or his witty lyrics, a clever plot, and low brow comedy, then this show is not for you.  Everyone else, don’t miss it.

Michael Brindley

Photographer: Jodi Hutchinson