A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (‘In Concert’) @ Lyric Stage (Majestic Theater)
Photo credit: Jamie Brogdon Photography
—Martha Heimberg
“Tragedy tomorrow,
Comedy tonight!”
Talk about matchmaking: The classy Lyric Stage at the gilded, glorious Majestic Theater is a marriage made in musical heaven.
Lyric’s rich 16-piece orchestra, the exuberant 26-member cast, and some happy high-comedy dance numbers all fill the grand old stage with the red velvet curtain for the company’s latest show: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the 1962 Broadway musical farce that still has audiences laughing and cheering.
Stephen Sondheim wrote the score and the witty lyrics, his first as both composer and lyricist. Burt Shrevelove and Larry Gelbart cooked up the bawdy joke-packed book, based on comedies of the Roman playwright Plautus, with lots of vaudeville turns stirred in for good measure.
“In Concert,” as the program notes point out, is not just actors reading a script and singing around a piano. This almost-fully staged production is orchestrated with the complete original script and songs, handsomely costumed by Megan A. Lilies, with a rich lighting design from Scott Guenther. There are no built sets, but it’s easy to imagine a street in Rome because the book and songs make it happen. In short, why bother with a set when you can perform great musicals with first-rate talent in a posh historic theater?
Directed here with quick comic pacing by Mary Galbreath Grim, and with musical direction by the everywhere-everything conductor Vonda K. Bowling, Forum’s famed opening song, “Comedy Tonight,” promises a happy ending right off the top. All we have to do is sit bak in the scrumptious red velvet seats, relax, and guffaw for the next two hours of crazy plot, great singing, and Kelly McCain’s sharp, jaunty choreography. I loved the courtesan parade, with each dancer showing off his or her particular hanky-panky skills. They can all shake their booties bigtime, but Cari Walton’s Gymnasia more than lives up to her titillating contortionist title.
Crafty Roman slave Pseudolus (a wily, wanna-be-gruff Mike Gallagher) schemes to win his freedom by helping his swooning, callow young master Hero (appealing tenor Ryan Michael Friedman) win the wide-eyed, witless, and beautiful courtesan Philia (sweet-throated soprano Tara Park). She, alas, is betrothed to the hunky, egomaniacal soldier Miles Gloriosus (hilarious JT Snyder). Charming young lovers Friedman and Park sing “Lovely”—and it’s a welcome slowing of the tangled plot to hear this beautiful duet. “Something for everyone,” we’re promised. The show delivers.
Also producing their share of shenanigans and laughs are Charles Barry as the aging Senex, looking for a last fling of his toga with the “maid” (any maid) to escape his wife Domina, the ferociously funny Brynne Huffman—who can hit a high note that rings right through every head in the hall. Caroline Rivera runs the neighborhood brothel with pride and comic chutzpah, in her Mohawk haircut and see-through purple pantaloons.
Everybody in the cast is sly, or bawdy, or whatever it takes to land the laugh. A standout is Joey Castorena as Hysterium, Senex’s chief slave and a natural-born scene-stealer. His jittery, hapless Hysterium and Gallagher’s conniving, lying, freedom-seeking Pseudolus are great comic partners. Castorena flounces, pouts, stomps, faints, or slams the door—while Gallagher throws up his hands, stares in disbelief, and opens doors to let the comic chaos in. The two men bring the house down with their hilarious reprise of “Lovely”, as Hysterium camps it up in his courtesan disguise, and Pseudolus is all grins as “she” primps and makes eyes at him.
Of course, we’re all on our feet and cheering when the happy ending arrives (just in time) and true love, freedom, and laughter reign. Comedy tonight! I only wish the show ran longer. Get your tix quick.
WHEN: Through May 15
WHERE: Majestic Theater, downtown Dallas
WEB: lyricstage.org
