Source: The New York Times
Date: October 30, 2009
Byline: Sylviane Gold

From the Start, Still a ‘Funny Thing’ at the Goodspeed Opera House

THE COMPANY Adam Heller, in armor [sic], is Pseudolus in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

You can’t always judge a musical by its first number. But “Comedy Tonight,” which opens “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” tells you from the get-go whether you’ll be in good hands. In the current Goodspeed Opera House production, when Adam Heller emerges from behind a gaudy purple curtain to promise us “something convulsive, something repulsive, something for everyone, a comedy tonight,” there’s no doubt things will go well.

It’s not just because he has an infectiously loopy grin and is hiking his shoulders and elbows up and down in time to Stephen Sondheim’s emphatic beat — though these are very good signs. It’s that the curtain quickly starts competing with him in the jokes department (don’t ask). It’s that the juggler doesn’t even have to drop his balls to make you laugh (again, don’t ask). It’s that before the number ends, a rubber chicken has joined the proceedings (well, you can ask if you want, but I don’t know the answer). Yes, you think, they get it. They know just what “A Funny Thing” is about.

Of course, it’s hard not to know, given the airtight book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. With its deep bows to ancient Roman comedy and to almost-as-ancient vaudeville tropes, it won one of the show’s seven Tony Awards in 1963, and then helped subsequent productions garner even more. It’s no accident that all three actors who starred on Broadway as Pseudolus, the scheming slave — Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Nathan Lane — walked away with Tonys. Mr. Heller’s wattage may not quite match theirs, but it’s more than enough to light up the compact confines of the Goodspeed.

As a matter of fact, the Goodspeed’s small stage is ideal for the concentrated mayhem this show requires, and James Noone’s cartoony set circumscribes the playing area even further. (For a sense of what too much space can do to farce, and in particular this farce, one need only look at Richard Lester’s failed 1966 movie version of “A Funny Thing.”) Even with Mr. Noone’s crowded streetscape, there’s plenty of room for the commotion orchestrated by the show’s director and choreographer, Ted Pappas — the constricted frame only heightens the impact. Similarly, Martha Bromelmeier’s colorful, stripe-happy costumes add to the general sense of teeming disorder.

For the record, this revolves around two young lovers, a jealous wife, a sex-starved husband, a distant mother-in-law, a bartered bride, a plague in Crete, a father on a pilgrimage to find his lost children, a military hero claiming the above-mentioned bride, a brothel keeper, his luscious courtesans, a sweaty mare, a funeral pyre, three rings inscribed with geese, a smart slave who knows his place and a smarter one, Pseudolus, who won’t stay in his.

Mr. Heller’s Pseudolus heads the inspired team of clowns, which includes a leering, squinty-eyed David Wohl as Senex, the hot-to-trot husband; a rouged, lip-smacking Ron Wisniski as Marcus Lycus, the greedy pimp; and a fluttery John Scherer as the wimpy servant Hysterium. When these four line up to sing “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” Mr. Sondheim’s ode to the traditional place of female servants in the literature of concupiscence, even the most right-thinking feminists will find themselves unable to disagree.

Some of Mr. Pappas’s other casting choices leave room for quibbling. And his claim to “choreography” is something of a stretch — “musical staging” would be more accurate. But “A Funny Thing” has never been about dancing (despite the fact that Jerome Robbins provided some doctoring on the original production). Even Mr. Sondheim’s entertaining score — the first Broadway outing for his words and music — can be meddled with harmlessly. “Pretty Little Picture,” one of its best songs, has been deleted here, and only those who know the original cast album will miss it. And even they won’t miss it much.

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart (book), is at Goodspeed Opera House, Route 82, East Haddam, through Nov. 29. Information at 860-873-8668 or goodspeed.org. Mon Nov 02 2009 11:41:57 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)