A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. To 7 October.

Ipswich

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM
book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

New Wolsey Theatre To 7 October 2006
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 4, 7 October 2.30pm
Audio-described 5 Oct
BSL Signed 6 Oct
Runs 2hr 5min One interval

TICKETS: 01473 295000
www.wolseytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 September

Considerably more appealing than appalling.
Stephen Sondheim‘s gone on to write deeper, wider-ranging musicals than his 1962 debut as lyricist and composer. But there’s pleasure in hearing him flex his early muscles with linguistic dexterity and an appetite for wittily seductive musical lines (Sondheim’s songs reach the heart through the head).

Both book-writers knew their stagecraft too, contributing to an intelligently good-humoured evening which creatively re-creates Plautus, the Roman comedy-writer who himself adapted many of his plays from now-lost Greek originals.

At its centre is Pseudolus, the slave who, as in most Plautus plots, engineers schemes to bring lovers together, an outcome less interesting than the complications he encounters en route. The role was intended for Phil Silvers, then at the height of his TV fame as the fictional Fort Baxter’s manipulative Sgt Ernie Bilko. But he balked at the role, which Zero Mostel created instead.

In Ipswich, Phylip Harries looks uncannily like his predecessor. His Pseudolus is a cheery soul, seeking freedom by helping Hero gain Philia, and becoming repeatedly stressed into overcoming the last problem by creating a new one. Dawn Allsopp’s design gives a colourful theatricality to events set around the usual 3 houses of Roman comedy, one of them the local brothel.

The fine opening song was a late addition, knocked off in a weekend by the ever-fertile Sondheim. Its frequent rhymes never cause verbal awkwardness, while the balance of “Something appealing, something appalling” comes down clearly in the former’s favour. Everything’s cheerily done in Peter Rowe’s production, which features, in his usual style, actor-musicians accompanying each others’ numbers.

The playing’s fine, the singing sometimes slightly overwhelmed by onstage brass, and sometimes too choppy – it is indeed lovely to reach the sustained vocal lines in the reprise of “Lovely”.

With Harries amiably driving events and fine work down-the-line from Nick Lashbrook as a soldier creating his own swish as he swings his prop weapon, Ruth Alexander-Rubin’s forceful Domina, Kraig Thornber’s comically anxious brothel-keeper, Harry Myers as an old man repeatedly circling Rome’s 7 hills and Jeremy Harrison’s soldier-poseur there’s wit and skill a-plenty to keep audiences happy with this comedy tonight.

Pseudolus: Phylip Harries
Protean: Nick Lashbrook
Hero: Simon Pontin
Philia: Rosie Jenkins
Senex: Johnson Willis
Domina: Ruth Alexander-Rubin
Hysterium: Oliver Jackson
Lycus: Kraig Thornber
Tintinabula: Natasha Lewis
Vibrata: Emma Correlle
Gymnasia: Esther Biddle
Erronius: Harry Myers
Miles Gloriosus: Jeremy Harrison

Director: Peter Rowe
Designer: Dawn Allsopp
Lighting: James Farncombe
Sound: Simon Deacon
Musical Director: Greg Palmer
Choreographer: Francesca Jaynes

2006-10-04 01:18:32