The Stage

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Published Monday 12 July 2004 at 14:30 by Peter Hepple

Despite the fact the lyrics and music are by Stephen Sondheim, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is not regarded as one of the master’s greatest works. The book is by a pair of practised funsters and the aim of the show is purely to entertain - which it does magnificently under Edward Hall’s direction, the only thing remotely classical in a musical set in 200 BC being that it is loosely, in every sense of the word, based on a story by Plautus about a conniving slave who creates mayhem in the lives of his masters.

What it actually amounts to is a paean of praise to vaudeville, offering us a host of wonderful old routines which have stood the test of time in a manner few people, even 40 years ago, could have thought possible. Secondly, it is a feast of camp, with its chorus of limp-wristed eunuchs who also do service as stupid soldiery, its ultra-feminine, brainless girls, a dirty old man, his dragon of a wife, a dotard forced to run round the seven hills of Rome, a preposterous general and a luridly sexless procurer.

At its centre is the slave Pseudolus, originally played in London by Frankie Howerd. Though strongly resembling the much-missed Howerd, Barrit is more generous with his superb comedy talents. Far from milking every line and situation, Barrit is content to fade into the background occasionally while still managing to remain in charge of the proceedings, which oddly enough still makes him the centre of attention.

He is strongly assisted, however, by Hamish McColl as his fellow slave Hysterium, David Schneider as the absurdly sinister Lycus, Vince Leigh as the bemused young Hero and Harry Towb as Erronius, while Sam Kelly in ripe music hall form and Isla Blair as his ferocious wife carry the main plot.

Add to this Philip Quast as the grandiloquent general and a collection of striking young women, with Caroline Sheen as the unbelievably virginal Philia, and you have a show which is a joy from beginning to end and will surely enjoy a long life at the National and elsewhere.