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Theatre Review: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Sunday, 10 August 2008 12:04 pmFriday night, d. and I headed out to Drayton to see A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
It was a fun show, and I was impressed at how well it's stood up. It was probably quite scandalous for its initial run in 1962: we've got under-dressed courtesans, a bawdy house, lots of double entendres, a dirty old man, a tender virgin couple, and... well, you get the picture.
The story was simple enough as a carrier for the wonderful physical comedy and musical numbers. The only character who felt any more than two-dimensional to me was Pseudolus the slave, who was also the narrator; he's a scoundrel who drives the plot, but has second thoughts near the end about whether he should stay a slave or go through with trying to become free. The players were fine- particularly the male leads, who all did a fair amount of slapstick. The female leads, perhaps by design, didn't have as much to do in the first half, though the female love interest, Phila, carries off the role of naive well. The second half has an extended scene where everyone is running in some direction, and given the cast of almost 20, it was fairly impressive. The musical numbers had an element of, "oh yeah, that's from this too:" "Comedy Tonight" (which for me is permanently tied to the Muppets), "Pretty Little Picture," "[Isn't She] Lovely", and "Everybody Ought To Have a Maid." (which had a wonderful double encore, adding an additional performer each time).
The set was clever: three fairly ho-hum Roman stucco houses, but for emphasis the columns lit from the inside, sometimes with chaser-lights, sometimes all three houses at once.
My only complaints? The horn-player in the orchestra seemed to distract me more than the horn should've. Maybe it was just too loud. And 20 minutes intermission is too long for a show that starts at 8, especially if they hold a raffle at the end of it. But no matter, it was a fun evening with d. We've seen one other show in Drayton, Man of La Mancha last year, which was also well done. The Drayton run ended yesterday but if you're up for a drive, they're playing at the Huron Country Playhouse through the end of the August.
It was a fun show, and I was impressed at how well it's stood up. It was probably quite scandalous for its initial run in 1962: we've got under-dressed courtesans, a bawdy house, lots of double entendres, a dirty old man, a tender virgin couple, and... well, you get the picture.
The story was simple enough as a carrier for the wonderful physical comedy and musical numbers. The only character who felt any more than two-dimensional to me was Pseudolus the slave, who was also the narrator; he's a scoundrel who drives the plot, but has second thoughts near the end about whether he should stay a slave or go through with trying to become free. The players were fine- particularly the male leads, who all did a fair amount of slapstick. The female leads, perhaps by design, didn't have as much to do in the first half, though the female love interest, Phila, carries off the role of naive well. The second half has an extended scene where everyone is running in some direction, and given the cast of almost 20, it was fairly impressive. The musical numbers had an element of, "oh yeah, that's from this too:" "Comedy Tonight" (which for me is permanently tied to the Muppets), "Pretty Little Picture," "[Isn't She] Lovely", and "Everybody Ought To Have a Maid." (which had a wonderful double encore, adding an additional performer each time).
The set was clever: three fairly ho-hum Roman stucco houses, but for emphasis the columns lit from the inside, sometimes with chaser-lights, sometimes all three houses at once.
My only complaints? The horn-player in the orchestra seemed to distract me more than the horn should've. Maybe it was just too loud. And 20 minutes intermission is too long for a show that starts at 8, especially if they hold a raffle at the end of it. But no matter, it was a fun evening with d. We've seen one other show in Drayton, Man of La Mancha last year, which was also well done. The Drayton run ended yesterday but if you're up for a drive, they're playing at the Huron Country Playhouse through the end of the August.
