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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Stephen Ouimette (left) as Hysterium and Bruce Dow as Pseudolus with members of the company.
Photo: David Hou A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Deann deGruijter as Domina and Stephen Ouimette as Hysterium.
Photo: David Hou A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Chilina Kennedy as Philia and Mike Nadajewski as Hero.
Photo: David Hou

Review by John Gardiner

As I've mentioned before in my reviews, I was not a fan of musicals back in the old days – before I discovered live musical theatre. I could not get into movie musicals and found them generally uninteresting and sort of boring. So, I'm not sure how I managed to see the musical, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", when it first appeared in movie form back in the late '60's/early '70's. But my memories of seeing it are that it was one of the funniest movies I'd ever seen....

And that's why I decided to try the Stratford Festival's production of "Forum" this year....because the movie version left such an impression that I could still remember some of the gags. And because of Bruce Dow, who has become one of my favourites at Stratford. After seeing him play the MC in Cabaret last year, I was sure he'd be great in this one....

And funny he was as the Roman slave Pseudolus, the central character in a very funny version of the play. In fact, my wife had the Kleenex out almost before the play was underway and we were soon both laughing heartily at the misadventures of slaves, courtesans, Roman soldiers, lovestruck young men and plenty of other zany characters. The whole affair was just good fun from beginning to end.

The play revolves around three Roman houses located on the same street in ancient Rome. Pseudolus is slave to Senex (Randy Hughson) and Domina (Deann deGruijter) and theur son, Hero (Mike Nadajewski) is madly in love with Philia (Chilina Kennedy), who is a courtesan in the house of Marcus Lycus (Cliff Saunders). The problem is that Philia is a virgin and she's been promised to the Roman captain Miles Gloriosus (Dan Chameroy). The fun starts when Hero promises Pseudolus his freedom if the slave can arrange for him to end up with the lovely Philia.

This play is a real piece of theatrical slapstick with sight gags and one liners being dropped at every opportunity. There are love potions, mistaken identities, forgetful old men and just about anything else that might deliver a laugh. And indeed the play was even funnier live than I remember from watching the movie version back in the old days....

And there is some great comedic acting. Dow is wonderful as Pseudolus and nicely weaves the whole thing together, but as far as laughs went, Stephen Ouimette was absolutely priceless as the slave Hysterium. His movements on stage and even his facial expressions were always enough to garner another laugh from the audience. Also, Dan Chameroy as Gloriosus was extremely funny. He looked for all the world like Dudley Dooright on stage and again facial expressions brought the house down.

Should also mention the Proteams......Jordan Bell, Stephen Cota and Julius Sermonia.....who always got the most out of their funny and bizarre roles as eunochs, soldiers and anything else they were required to do...very funny stuff...

The original production had some really big Broadway names associated with it....book was by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, music and lyrics were by Stephen Sondheim and the show was originally produced by the legendary Harold Prince....and it's easy to see hy the musical is a winner even after all these years...

So, if you want some shameless laughs this summer, I'd highly recommend Stratford's production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum....It really is worth the price of admission and then some....a good way to lighten up your summer....