Clayton Snyder a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
There'southward a new kid on the Garry Marshall Theatre cake from now through December x as stage-screen-recording star Joey McIntyre takes on the pb in the Marshall's deliciously entertaining, ingeniously streamlined staging of the farcical please that is A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.
Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart's rib-tickling book takes us back to Aboriginal Rome circa 200 BC where iii families go about living their lives as next-door neighbors.
In the center house resides the lecherous, henpecked Senex (Kevin Symons), hubby to a harpy named Domina (Candi Milo) and father to handsome hunk Hero (Michael Thomas Grant), whose personal slave Pseudolus (McIntyre) labors loyally aslope the appropriately dubbed Hysterium (Ethan Cohn).
To their right lives Marcus Lycus (E.1000. Dagenfield), a well-to-practise man of affairs who deals in the ownership and selling of beautiful ladies of pleasure.
To the left lives Erronius (Dagenfield once again), an elderly gent whose baby children were long ago stolen by pirates.
With Senex and Domina out of town, Hero confides to Pseudolus his love for Philia (Nicole Kaplan), the most beauteous (and virginal) of Marcus Lycus's rentgirls. Unfortunately for Hero, Philia's possessor has already promised her to the always victorious warrior Miles Gloriosus (Clayton Snyder), on his way back from battle to claim his bride-to-be.
And so Pseudolus makes a deal with his young master. If he can help Hero win girl-side by side-door'southward dearest, master volition grant slave his liberty.
Now it's upwards to Pseudolus to come up upward with a programme to ensure Hero's happiness and his ain future equally a gratuitous homo also.
Perhaps non surprisingly, there will be complications aplenty on the road to liberty and bliss along with puns galore, plenty of mistaken identities, and Stephen Sondheim gems like "Comedy Tonight," "Lovely," "Pretty Fiddling Picture," and "Everybody Ought To Have A Maid," each of which belies the composer'south reputation for "tunelessness."
Manager Joseph Leo Bwarie ingeniously trims the original Broadway cast of seventeen down to xi, with Shamicka Benn, Liz Bustle, and Vanessa Nichole embodying slave girls, assorted citizens, and soldiers alike.
There's not a hint of the decidedly not teen-idol-licious Zero Mostel (Broadway's original Pseudolus) in McIntyre'southward thoroughly winning slave-adjacent-door reimagining of the office, the New Kid proving himself a master of the ad-lib, a crackerjack comedian, and (no surprise hither) ane heck of a vocalist.
The gloriously voiced Grant is not but dreamy as all get-out, but with a much younger-than-usual Pseudolus by Hero's side, it'southward easy to imagine these 2 equally all-time buds in a fairer globe, and Kaplan is as absolutely lovely as the endearingly clueless Philia declares herself to exist.
Cohn is a hysterical hoot every bit Hysterium, Milo has her battleaxe downwardly to perfection, stopping the show with the ode to love-detest relationships that is "That Muddied Quondam Homo," and Symons plays her harried hubby similar nobody'south business.
Dagenfield does delightful double duty as both Marcus Lycus and Erronius, the latter of whom earns among the evening's biggest laughs simply for walking across the stage.
Benn, Hurry, and dance captain Nichole are all three as gorgeous equally they are glamorous and as fabulous as they are fit, and never more so than when executing Becca Sweitzer'southward imaginative choreography.
And speaking of fit and fabulous, Snyder (who's got his own teen idol creds as Lizzie McGuire'southward Ethan), makes muscular marvel Miles Gloriosus the evening's nearly glorious scene-stealer.
Musical director/keyboard primary Brent Crayon conducts Forum'south terrific backstage band with able support from Gene Burkert, Dana Decker, and Nick Stone, sound designer Robert Arturo Ramirez providing an expert mix of amped vocals and instrumentals.
The iii singled-out, colorful, side-past-side Roman domiciles that make up Fred Kinney's set look fifty-fifty more splendid as decorated by backdrop designer John McElveney and lit to Technicolor perfection past François-Pierre Couture, at that place's not a ane of Jessica Champagne-Hansen'southward fanciful period costumes that doesn't please, and Jessica Mills scores high marks for the ladies' wigs.
Christine Lakin is assistant director. Marcedes Clanton is production stage manager and Toran 10. Moore is assistant phase manager. Casting is by Jami Rudofsky. Lucas Coleman, assistant choreographer Brooke Engen, Caitlyn Gallogly, Anthony Gruppuso, and Philip Dean Lightstone are understudies. Paul C. Vogt resumes the role of Pseudolus on December xiv.
As he did on Broadway in Wicked (and on the Falcon Theatre stage as Happy Days' Fonzie), Joey McIntyre in one case once more proves there is life beyond boy band stardom. NKOTB fans volition probable fill up Garry Marshall seats from now through December 10, but even if you've not heard a unmarried ane of their 1000000-seller hits, check out how a New Kid from Needham, Mass, can brand an already fanatabulous Forum extra-particularly fresh and new.
Garry Marshall Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank.
www.GarryMarshallTheatre.org
–Steven Stanley
Nov 22, 2017
Photos: Chelsea Sutton
Tags: Burt Shevelove, Garry Marshall Theatre, Larry Gelbart, Los Angeles Theater Review, Stephen Sondheim
Source: https://stagescenela.com/2017/11/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-forum-5/
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