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Funny things throughout

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN
Published March 10, 2007

The version of the musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum playing weekends through March 25 at Stage West Community Playhouse gets just about everything right.

Set in ancient Rome about 200 B.C., it's the story of a cunning slave who bargains with his master to gain his freedom. The Stephen Sondheim lyrics and music are witty and fast-paced. The Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart script, a clever adaptation of original comedies by Plautus, is packed with funny one-liners, extended comedy scenes and outrageously hilarious characters.

Director Barbara Everest's cast is superb. You couldn't find a better lead than Peter Clapsis as the conniving slave Pseudolus; a funnier sidekick slave Hysterium than the irrepressible George Dwyer; or a more pompous soldier Miles Gloriosus than Leslie Richard. Watching these fellows is sheer fun: great timing, clear delivery and a willingness to take it right over the top when a shtick is really perking.

Makes you want to shout, "Do it again, do it again!"

The six courtesans (Sarah Coit, Jacquelynne Bernstein, Toni Berlinger, Jeanine Martin, Jennifer Clark and Leslee Starz) dance on a professional level. Bob Pierson is delightful as the doddering old geezer Erronius, and the rest of the 18-member cast fill their roles admirably.

Madeline Child's costumes are gorgeous. The sets by Todd Everest (on loan from his job as house technician at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre) are slick and solid, and Toni Berlinger's choreography is top notch.

Clearly, this cast and crew deserve the best all the way.

That's why it's heart-breaking that the musical accompaniment is so inept that, at times, it almost overshadows the considerable talents on the stage. Only by sheer force of will and volume (and recorded tracks during the courtesans' dances) does the Funny/Forum cast manage to put on a wonderful show despite the ear-offending flubs and blunders in the orchestra pit. (Note to director: Kill the overture. That sound doesn't whet the appetite for the rest of the show.)

And, as long as I'm griping, the lighting director needs to make some adjustments so the proper characters are highlighted when they should be, particularly in the crucial opening number when Pseudolus introduces the players. The audience could barely see the trader in female flesh, Marcus Lycus, played delightfully by W. Paul Wade, as he lounged beside his door stoop during that scene.

All that said, Funny/Forum is still a show worth seeing and seeing again, if, for no other reason, to watch Clapsis do Pseudolus.

If YOU Go . . .

... you may go back

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a musical in two acts, runs weekends through March 25 at Stage West Community Playhouse, 8390 Forest Oaks Blvd., Spring Hill. Shows at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $18. Box office is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and an hour before each performance. Call (352) 683-5113.

[Last modified March 10, 2007, 00:02:13]