Chicago Theater Review: A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (Porchlight at Stage 773)

ANCIENT LAUGHS TIMES TEN

An irresistible mix of Roman “new comedy,” commedia dell’arte, and vaudeville, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum rivals The Producers as the funniest musical comedy ever–and the future seems no threat. Not seen in Chicago since Goodman Theatre’s lavish 1988 production, the once and future 1962 smasheroo is relentlessly right in Porchlight Music Theatre’s rollicking revival. Right now you can’t find a happier 145 minutes in any theater in the Midwest, though the search, of course, continues.

Brilliant yuksters Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart combined forces with a young and still melody-mad Stephen Sondheim to shamelessly steal from copyright-free Plautus (251-183 BC). These merry pranksters transmogrified the ancient comic’s Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus and Mostellaria into the perfect farce with music. Originally intended for Phil Silvers, who rejected it as “Sgt. Bilko in a tunic” (but who won a Tony when he starred in the first Broadway revival in 1972), the gutbusting plot focuses on the house slave Pseudolus: This superb trickster will do anything to win his freedom from his young master Hero (cute Miles Blim).

It makes total sense that it all happens on a day in spring, when the Roman Republic hadn’t yet gone global. Pseudolus’ plans A through Z entail securing the affections of Hero’s beloved airhead Philia (comely Sarah Lynn Robertson), a newly arrived and still virginal courtesan in the libidinous House of Lycus. (She is literally the whore next door.) A lot of eyes are undressing Philia, so Pseudolus’ shenanigans involve a delightful campaign of altered identities and strategic deceptions. He bamboozles everyone in sight with whiplash prevarications, magic potions, gender-bending disguises, and a chase scene to hopefully not end all chase scenes.

As promised in the  glorious opening number “Comedy Tonight” (rivaled only by “Tradition” as the greatest table-setter on Broadway), there’s many more than a laugh a minute. The songs–“Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” the father and son duet “Impossible,” and the braggart soldier’s “Bring Me My Bride”–are utterly enthralling. (Plus there’s a new charmer: A sweet lovers’ duet “Echo Song,” foolishly cut during try-outs, is here restored with Sondheim’s permission.)

Rampaging when not romping, Michael Weber’s surefire staging doesn’t miss a rib-tickling giggle, snicker, chortle or guffaw. With a Midas touch for turning everything into laughs, Bill Larkin’s rubber-faced, manically mugging Pseudolus combines wizard timing, toxic zingers, swift asides, slapstick, double takes, pratfalls, magnificent mime, and more punch lines than seem possible to make this super servant an epicenter of hilarity.

Clever casting gives the arch buffoon perfect support. Larkin’s genius jester is backed up by deft zanies, a clown chorus called The Proteans (Jason Grimm, Andrew Lund and Jaymes Osborne) who never met a costume they couldn’t change. Pompously protected by procurer Marcus Lycus (Lorenzo Rush Jr. in full basso profundo), The Proteans’ female equivalents are four goodtime girls much like Mazeppa, Tessie Tura and Electra in Gypsy. These are Tintinabula (Ariana Cappuccitti), Panacea (Erica Evans), Vibrata (Britt-Marie Siversten) and Gymnasia (Neala Barron). The names alone are sidesplittingly predictive.

In no time and in a hundred ways, split-second Pseudolus manages to outfox, manipulate, transform or hoodwink his anal retentive fellow-slave Hysterium (adorably androgynous Matt Crowle), his master’s horny paterfamilias Senex (Will Clinger, captivatingly clueless as the “dirty old man”), Senex’ Medusa-like wife  Domina (Caron Buinis, a Roman matron in low fustian), and the blustering warrior Miles Gloriosus (Greg Zawada channeling Gaston from Beauty and the Beast). Finally, there’s a forlorn father Erronius (Anthony Whitaker); seeking his children stolen by pirates, this gull is fooled into circling the seven hills of Rome seven times in what is drama’s first and most literal running joke.

The kudos keep coming: Linda Madonia’s musical direction is sterling on gold. Megan Truscott’s cartoon set sheer inspiration. Alexia Rutherford’s caricaturing costumes are worth 1,000 words each, all amusing. Mealah Heidenreich’s props deliver solid sight gags. Brenda Didier’s playful dances burst with anachronistic pleasures–so many Roman friezes reduced to burlesque hoofing in the monumental “Funeral Sequence” and the ravishing opening and closing numbers. Forum is indeed a “Pretty Little Picture”–no, pretty little masterpiece. The musical may not be able to wake the dead but it can certainly convulse the living. A very funny thing happened on the way to Stage 773. You get the joke. Please.

photos by Anthony La Penna

A Funny Thing Happened
on the Way to the Forum
Porchlight Music Theatre
Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave
ends on May 24, 2015
for tickets, call 773.327.5252
or visit www.porchlightmusictheatre.org

for more info on Chicago Theater,
visit www.TheatreinChicago.com