A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (2023)

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart
Based on the Roman comedies of Plautus

June 1-24, 2023
Marcelle Theater
Show Webpage
Production Photos

THE CAST
Pseudolus – Kent Coffel
Hysterium – Chris Moore
Hero – Ian McCreary
Philia – Sarah Wilkinson
Senex – Robert Doyle
Domina – Ann Hier Brown
Marcus Lycus – Jason Blackburn
Miles Gloriosus – Danny Brown
Erronius – Gary Cox
Proteans – Nathan Hakenewerth, Brittany Kohl Hester, Aarin Kamphoefner

THE NEW LINE BAND
Conductor/Keyboard – Matthew Kauzlarich
Reeds – Kelly Austermann
Trumpet – Ron Foster
Brass – John Gerdes
Trombone – Adam Levin
Percussion – Clancy Newell

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Directors – Scott Miller, Chris Kernan
Choreographer – Chris Kernan
Music Director – Joe Simpson
Stage Manager – Chelsie Johnston
Technical Director – Matt Stuckel
Sound Designer – Ryan Day
Costume Designer – Eileen Engel
Scenic Designer – Dr. Rob Lippert
Lighting Designer – Matt Stuckel
Props Master – Erin Goodenough
Scenic Artists – Mallory Golden, Matt Stuckel
Scenic Crew – Richard Brown, Patrick Donnigan, Bill Stuckel
Volunteer Coordinator – Alison Helmer
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

REVIEWS

“Producer and co-director Scott Miller embraces the later, greater Sondheim, in spite of the chronology, to reimagine a new Forum. And as if by magic, or science, a musical lineage from shows like Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods seems to lead us backward into Forum – almost as if Mr. Miller and co-director/choreographer Chris Kernan were predicting all the great plays to come, from an earlier, less highly regarded musical. Mr. Miller once again finds the full clarity and complexity of Sondheim’s music and musings, and that, as they say, turns out to be the ‘star’ of our show in this particular case. . . Their efforts pay off in the immaculate clarity of music and lyrics, in songs we can suddenly recognize as true to the overall legacy.” – Richard Green, Talkin’ Broadway

“Since 1991 Scott Miller’s New Line Theatre has been pumping out brilliant productions of edgy, mostly very modern musicals. Occasionally they’ll revive a grand old classic (e.g., Anything Goes, from the ‘30s). But now they’re going way, way back. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum premiered in 1962. And it reaches back twenty-two centuries! Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart picked juicy plot devices and characters from the Roman playwright Plautus. Plautus himself stole from what the earlier Greeks called ‘New Comedy’. To us it looks a lot like the old Borscht Belt and Vaudeville comic sketches. This is truly time-tested comedy. And at New Line it’s still dazzlingly funny! . . . The entire cast is strong. . . It’s another bright success for directors Scott Miller and Chris Kernan.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX

“New Line Theatre’s production A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum succeeds due to Scott Miller’s directorial vision and the comedic timing of Miller’s strong cast. There are plenty of laughs in the First Act, but the second act builds to a crescendo of complete hilarity. . . downright madcap. . . keeps the audience laughing nonstop . . . big laughs throughout the show.” – James Lindhorst, BroadwayWorld

Co-director Scott Miller, founder and artistic director of New Line Theatre, does justice to his musical muse, Stephen Sondheim, with this well-paced, often hilarious and downright entertaining presentation of one of Sondheim’s earliest successes. . . New Line’s two-act, two-hour version delivers steady doses of comedy, with liberal sprinklings of delightful tunes. . . ‘Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight’ sing Pseudolus and company at the show’s opening, and comedy they deliver with hearty flair.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“It does have its dated elements, but at New Line, as usual, there are some new perspectives that emerge. For the most part, this is a show that revels in its humor, and at New Line, the focus is on the strong singing of Stephen Sondheim’s memorable score. . . New Line has become adept at scaling shows down for its venue, as well as bringing out nuances in stories that bigger productions can gloss over. . . New Line’s production is a lot of fun, with its small scale again working in its favor. It’s an enjoyable production especially for fans of Stephen Sondheim, goofy comedy, and great singing.” – Michelle Kenyon, Snoop’s Theatre Thoughts

“Even with his reduced forces, Miller has made the climactic chase scene as funny and convincing as I have ever seen it. I don’t know a musical comedy that has more wild and crazy joy in it than this one. . . Thanks to the work of all New Line’s artists of the theatre, I once again had a lovely time at A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” – Bob Wilcox, Two on the Aisle

“In New Line’s new iteration, solid performances, a cartoonishly fitting stage design and exaggerated direction by Scott Miller embrace the sometimes cheesy, sometimes cheeky script and score, ensuring the show is entertaining in a nostalgic way. . . Thankfully, the jovial tone, over-the-top characterizations, dad jokes and much of the vaudevillian humor still work, ensuring New Line Theatre’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a recognizable nod to the original show.” – Tina Famer, The Riverfront Times

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

The Second Century BC Roman playwright Plautus wrote dozens of farces, skewering politics and politicians, the cultural elite, and other public figures. His satire was razor sharp, so when Burt Shevelove thought of combining some of Plautus’ plays and adapting them for the musical stage, that new adaptation would inevitably be just as ruthlessly funny, particularly coming as it did, right at the pivot point between the cultural conformity of the 1950s and the explosions and explorations of the 1960s.

In his book Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus, Erich Segal writes, “Of all the Greek and Roman playwrights, Titus Maccius Plautus is the least admired and the most imitated.” Plautus wrote more plays than Euripides, almost twice as many as Aristophanes, and three times as many as Terrence. Greek literature professor Moses Hadas wrote about Plautus’ characters, “They are like characters in Rabelais, not Cervantes; like the Marx Brothers, not Charlie Chaplin.”

As Plautus mocked the people and culture of his time, Shevelove and his eventual collaborators would likewise mock the culture of the early 1960s. Once adapted and musicalized, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum would be a stinging satire of the way American culture views women. Right there at the beginning of the Sexual Revolution, the show revealed American’s complex relationship with sexuality, both seeking sex and fearing it at the same time. Notably, one of Plautus’ favorite plot elements was the damnosa libido, the dangerous sex drive.

Co-bookwriter Larry Gelbart later said, “What treasure we found in his plays! There they were, running wild, appearing for the first time anywhere: the wily slave, the senile skirt-chaser, the henpecked husband, the domineering matron, the courtesan with the hair and heart of gold; page after page of mistaken identity and double meanings.”

Some of the critics really understood the Forum experiment underway. The music critic for The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, wrote about Stephen Sondheim’s score, “For all the talk of Forum harking back to the days of good, clean farce; theatrically, it is an experimental work. It completely subverts the heritage of what is called the book show, handed down by Rodgers and Hammerstein, where the songs emerge from the plot. In Forum, the songs purposely interrupt the farcical plot, giving the audience a needed break from the madcap hysterics.”

Gelbart said, “Our goal was to construct a show based on Plautus, who, borrowing from the Greeks, taught amphitheater audiences up and down the original Caesar’s circuit to laugh for the first time at character and situation instead of those old staples they found so amusing – bloodshed and tragedy.”