A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Perris Progress
Theatre Review
By Phill Courtney
About thirty years ago, I practically wore out an LP cast recording from the 1966 movie version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, with Zero Mostel as the conniving Pseudolus, and Buster Keaton as the doddering, perpetually confused Erronius. The Forum album was one of my favorites back then, with a number of crowd-pleasing Stephen Sondheim songs, so when I'd heard that Performance Riverside's June production was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, I knew I had to be there.
Filling in for Zero Mostel is the deft comic actor John Massey Jr., a veteran of such previous Performance Riverside productions as How to Succeed in Business, and most recently The Fantasticks. Any production of Forum rises or falls on the central role of Pseudolus, who sets the plot in motion with his efforts to win his freedom by uniting his master's son with Philia, a virginal young woman who has just arrived at the nearby house of Lycus, a buyer and seller of female flesh. Massey brings the energy level up immediately as he steps to center stage to introduce the evening with the "Comedy Tonight" theme song. As Pseudolus' comic foil Hysterium, Brach Woodman brings an edgy, swishy spin to the part, and is all over the stage for most of the evening, trying to keep the various characters and convoluted plot twists from tangling up any more than they do. His finest moment comes in the second act, when he impersonates Philia in another one of those plot twists, and pulls off a revival of Philia's earlier song "Lovely" in a fabulous falsetto.
Playing the young, virginal lovers, Hero and Philia, are David Beaver and Kelli M. Casas who add a suitably naive winsomeness to their respective parts. Their rendering of "Lovely" is soon followed by the stand-out number "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," which, in one of the show's few missteps, is carried along at a rapid clip, and could have been slowed down a bit so as to better savor Sondheim's clever lyrics.
Act I is brought to a rousing close with the arrival of Roman captain Miles Gloriosus, played by Danny Blaylock. He fills out his Roman soldier's skirt admirably, and never lets us forget it, in a genuinely funny celebration of his own magnificence.
As Lycus, Cory Reeder presides over his covey of courtesans with unflappable hip cat coolness, that comes in handy when he introduces his girls, played by Renee Liskey, Ashley O'Connell, Victoria Linder, Krista Lenggiere, Niniesha Tucker, and Maile Leonard, who each pull off their respectively seductive dances with finesse.
Other strong performances are given by The Proteans, (Casey Garritano, Matthew Kellaway, and Aaron Williams), and Michael Charles in the Buster Keaton role of Erronius. Charles, who has served with Performance Riverside for many years in various capacities, is wonderfully draft as Erronius, who is told he must walk around the seven hills of Rome seven times in order to buy time for the scheme Pseudolus has hatched. His second trip by on a Segue scooter is a comic highlight.
Choreographer John Vaughan shows ample evidence of the some 150-plus productions he has under his belt, and lighting designer Dan Volonte throws in a provocative detail by outlining the house of Lycus with red strobe lights. Director Gary Krinke displays the depth of his experience with Forum, which goes back to his senior graduate project in college in 1971, and keeps the various comic turns and swinging doors constantly moving.
