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Reviews
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the ForumMusic and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry
Gelbart Perhaps the most surprising fact about Edward Hall's revival of this musical farce is that 41 years after its London Premiere, Isla Blair who was in that cast, reappears. Presumably, she started as a courtesan. Now she has graduated to the wife from hell, Domina. The Travelex £10 Season means that the tickets are cheap. This also tests set designers and Improbable Theatre's Julian Crouch, who works wonders with little more than cardboard houses, his imagination and the Olivier's revolve. The musical itself is beginning to look a little dated, with its Benny Hill-style titillation that harks back to the days when beauty contests were de rigeur. Women had to be beauties or beasts but nothing in between, and men literally chased them. Desmond Barrit plays Pseudolus, a servant who has previously exercised the likes of Frankie Howerd to whom Barrit pays tribute in his performance, along with Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers. He gets his hen-pecked boss Senex, played by Sam Kelly, and boss' son (Vince Leigh) into trouble, after they both fall for Caroline Sheen, playing Philia, a blonde virgin so dumb that she can't count to 3 (or 5).
The men also get too close to the next door neighbour's courtesans for comfort. They are played by six pretty dancers matched in the chorus with their male equivalents, half a dozen acrobatic eunuchs. The songs are generally not that catchy with the single exception of the 15-minute opener, Comedy Tonight, delivered with gusto by the whole cast. The lyrics can be witty and risqué, both possibly epitomised by the rhyming of tunic with eunuch (ouch!). The voices are passable rather than wonderful with the single exception of Philip Quast, as the narcissistic Miles Gloriosus. He stands head and shoulders above the other cast members, in every sense, combining a fine baritone with great comic timing with some excellent lines. Veteran Harry Towb has a tiny part but inevitably gets many laughs with his running joke. The Right Size's Hamish McColl, as servant Hysterium, comes into his own when he gets into drag. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is often funny with puns and poetry, songs and visual gags. It has about as much depth as a Carry On film but then its audience would probably not expect more. It could well be a success with the cheap tickets and the West End may even beckon for this overtly commercial show. It has been there successfully before and its original New York production managed almost 1,000 performances.
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