Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

When I think of musical comedy, Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is the first show that comes to mind. Just three years ago, I had never heard of Forum before, until my high school choir director announced that it would be our 2008 musical. I was hesitant to audition at first, not knowing the plot or what I was getting myself into, but now I can honestly say that it was my favorite musical production ever to be a part of. Forum, a musical farce written in two acts and Sondheim’s first work on Broadway both as composer and lyricist, is “a non-stop laugh-fest in which a crafty slave (Pseudolus) struggles to win the hand of a beautiful but slow-witted courtesan (Philia) for his young master (Hero), in exchange for freedom” (MTI 1). In Sondheim’s own words, “there’s not a wasted moment in Forum, and the truth and the test of it is that the play is just as funny when performed by a group of high school students as it is when it is performed on Broadway. It is never not funny. The reason is, it is based on situations so solid that you cannot not laugh” (Gordon 25). A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a collaboration between American librettist Burt Shevelove, playwright Larry Gelbart, and musical theater extraordinaire, Stephen Sondheim. Originally, Shevelove had done a version of a Roman comedy in college and thought that a professional Broadway production would be very successful. The book, written by both Shevelove and Gelbart, became an intricate synthesis of the “twenty-six surviving plays of Titus Maccius Plautus, the third-century Roman playwright, who invented all the devices of theatrical comedy, teaching amphitheater audiences up and down Caesar’s Circuit to laugh for the first time at character and situation instead of that old staple they found so amusing, bloodshed” (Applause 1-2). Perhaps the best book associated with a Sondheim musical, the impeccable writing by the authors managed to keep the spirit of Roman comic theater intact while simultaneously incorporating the humor of American burlesque (Gordon 19). In comparison to Sondheim’s previous scores, Forum’s lyrics are the complete antithesis of the Rodgers and Hammerstein structure. “As a lyricist for West Side Story and Gypsy, he had employed his mentor’s technique, in which a song is an inevitable, almost uncontrollable expression of a character’s emotional state and is invariably utilized to advance the story”; however, in Forum, “the songs interrupt the action and prevent the frenetic comedy from becoming excessive and unrelieved” (Gordon 20). The long, yet creative title of the musical suggests that the play is a comedy without actually using that word, and the phrase “A funny thing happened on the way to” was chosen to complement the opening line which comedians have used for years (Applause 6). The audience is welcomed by Pseudolus, slave to Hero, as Prologus. He announces a comedy and sings the opening lines of “Comedy Tonight” before setting the stage: a street in Rome with three houses; “the first belongs to Erronius, ‘a befuddled old man abroad now in search of his children, stolen in infancy by pirates’: the second to Lycus, ‘a buyer and seller of the flesh of beautiful women’: and the last to Senex, who along with his wife, son and principal slaves will carry most of the action” (Sjsondheim.com). The first comedic moment of the play occurs when the role of Pseudolus is described, a role of enormous variety and nuance; obviously the most impressive character, for Pseudolus himself plays the part. Senex and his wife Domina are about to go on a trip to visit Domina’s mother, leaving Hero in the care of their trusted household slave, Hysterium. Hysterium is to keep Hero away from the courtesans next door at the House of Marcus Lycus, but once his parents leave, it is clear that Hero has little else on his mind. As Hero daydreams about the courtesan, Philia, whom he has glimpsed in Lycus’s window, Pseudolus offers to get her if Hero will agree to free him. As Lycus comes out of his house Pseudolus tries to buy the Cretan virgin Philia, but he is unsuccessful because she has already been sold to the captain, Miles Gloriosus. Pseudolus manages to convince the gullible Lycus that the plague has broken out in Crete, and the only way to keep the rest of his precious “merchandise” from becoming infected is to let the girl stay at Senex’s house until the captain arrives. Hero and Philia finally meet in person, and it’s clear they are a perfectly dim-witted couple. Hysterium does not approve of their relationship, so Pseudolus arranges for the two to elope on a boat and leave Rome, but Philia refuses to break her contract with the captain; she decides to stay in Senex’s house until her captain claims her. Pseudolus promises to announce the captain’s arrival by knocking on the door three times. The cunning slave then comes up with the bright idea to give Philia a sleeping potion so the captain will think she has died of the plague. While he is off searching for the potion’s ingredients, including mare’s sweat, Senex unexpectedly returns carrying Domina’s broken bust. He knocks three times at his own door and Philia answers, throwing herself at her “captain.” Pseudolus discovers the horrible mistake and fabricates a story that Philia is the new maid of the house. Senex is delighted with the new “servant” and agrees with Lycus, Hysterium, and Pseudolus that “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid.” Senex plans to take Philia next door to Erronius’s vacant house to hide his adultery from his innocent son, Hero. Quick on his feet, Pseudolus sprinkles the mare’s sweat on Senex and convinces him that he must bathe first. He does so in Erronius’s house, leaving Pseudolus to continue plotting and Hysterium in a state of panic. Erronius suddenly returns from his journey and is scared to enter his own house from the sound of Senex’s awful shower singing, which he mistakes for evil spirits. Pseudolus poses as a soothsayer to convince the old man that the only cure for ghosts is to walk around the seven hills of Rome seven times. Before going on his way, Erronius shows Pseudolus his ring engraved with a gaggle of geese, the same ring his two lost children wear; he accidently leaves the ring with Pseudolus, who puts it on his finger. Senex reappears from Erronius’s house looking for Hysterium to prepare his bath, but encounters his son instead, who is wondering why his father has returned so soon. They are both distracted by Philia, who waves to them from Senex’s balcony. The two wonder why she waved at the other that way, each concluding that the other’s relationship with Philia would be impossible. Just as Pseudolus is explaining to Lycus that Philia’s only hope against “the plague” is the potion he has created, a foot soldier arrives to announce that Miles Gloriosus is just a league away. Hysterium quickly goes off to give the potion to Philia, and Pseudolus persuades Lycus to bring out the rest of the courtesans to greet the captain. Miles makes his grand entrance and demands that Pseudolus, disguised as Lycus, bring him his bride. However, Philia has refused the potion, for it is against her Cretan religion to drink and Pseudolus desperately tells Miles that the virgin has run off. Furious, Miles threatens to kill Pseudolus, who he thinks is Lycus. Pseudolus asks for one final word before his death, and Miles replies that it better be a good one (Sjsondheim.com). Indeed it is, as Pseudolus brings the audience back to reality, with the word “Intermission!” Act Two begins with a recap of the story thus far, Miles is about to execute Pseudolus, but the clever slave is able to convince Miles to give him an hour to find his missing bride. As Pseudolus runs off with Miles’s soldiers, he tells Hysterium to hide the girl on the roof of Senex’s house. Senex waits, newly clean, in Erronius’s house for Philia, as Domina returns with the suspicion that Senex is cheating on her. She meets Miles Gloriosus at her house, who mistakes her for a courtesan. Hero comes back for Philia to find that she has refused the potion and still waits for her captain. She tries to console Hero by telling him that she will think of him while making love to Miles, but Hero remains heartbroken. Pseudolus, bereft of ideas, makes Hysterium dress as Miles’s dead bride. Pseudolus convinces Hysterium that he looks absolutely lovely and gives him Erronius’s ring to complement the drag ensemble. Devastated, Miles insists upon a formal funeral for his bride, but when he tries to give “her” a farewell kiss, Hysterium jumps up and runs away. The final chase scene ends with Hysterium caught, Miles enraged, and the rest of the town gathered around. Erronius sees his ring on Hysterium and discovers that both Philia and Miles are wearing the other two rings, making Philia Miles’s sister! Philia and Hero are finally allowed to marry, and Pseudolus is freed at last (Sjsondheim.com). Forum opened on Broadway on May 8, 1962 at the Alvin Theater; directed by George Abbott and produced by Hal Prince, it ran for a total of 964 performances. The role of Pseudolus was originally written for Phil Silvers, but he turned it down. Milton Berle also passed on the role, and eventually Zero Mostel was cast. During its off-Broadway productions, the show as originally conceived was attracting little business and needed a change. Director and choreographer Jerome Robbins thought the opening number, “Love is in the Air,” which had already replaced “Invocation” at Abbott’s request, should also be replaced with a more functional song that set the tone of the musical and let the audience know what to expect (Gordon 21). Thus, “Comedy Tonight” was written. In London’s West End, the 1963 production was held at the Strand Theater and played for 762 performances, starring Frankie Howerd as Pseudolus, Kenneth Connor as Hysterium, “Monsewer” Eddie Gray as Senex, Jon Pertwee as Lycus, and Leon Greene as Miles Gloriosus (Applause 147). The 1986 revival was staged at the Piccadilly Theater for 49 performances (Applause 150). Forum was made into a musical film in 1966 directed by Richard Lester with Mostel and Jack Gilford (as Hysterium) in their original Broadway roles, Leon Green in his West End role of Miles, Phil Silvers as Marcus Lycus, Michael Crawford as Hero, and Buster Keaton in his final film appearance as Erronius. The movie only used about half the score; “unfortunately, Lester fragmented the musical numbers by using the same kind of quick cuts he’d used for the pop songs in his Beatles movies, and the lyrics tended to get somewhat lost in the process. Since the lyrics of a show song are important to what’s going on—none more so than Sondheim’s, which are also extremely funny in Forum—Lester’s work hurt the show and made the movie less successful than it might have been (Patinkin 364). In 1971, the show was revived by the Center Theater Group of Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theater in LA from October 13-November 20, running for 47 performances. This production finally starred Phil Silvers as Pseudolus, Lew Parker as Senex, and Reginald Owen as Erronius. A new song, “Farewell,” was written for Nancy Walker (Domina); “That’ll Show Him” was dropped, and “Echo Song” was added as a duet for Philia and Hero. The same production was then revived on Broadway from March- August 1972 after 156 performances, during which time the song “Pretty Little Picture” was also dropped (Applause 148-149). Another very successful revival in 1996 starred Nathan Lane as Pseudolus, Ernie Sabella as Lycus, Mark Linn-Baker as Hysterium, Lewis J. Stadlen as Senex, and Chris Groenendaal as Miles Gloriosus; the production, directed by Jerry Zaks, ran for 715 performances. Lane was replaced on February 17, 1997 by comedienne Whoopi Goldberg (Hutchins 11), marking the first time the role of Pseudolus was played by a woman, let alone a black woman, and causing some controversy among audience members and reviewers alike. Of course, there are potential problems with this; the one everyone most feared was “the scene where Marcus Lycus shows Pseudolus his courtesans. Here’s when the slave usually gets hot and bothered.” According to Peter Filichia from the Sondheim Review, “Goldberg smoothes over the potential problem by showing the embarrassment and astonishment of a woman who’s been taken to a burlesque house. It all works fine” (Filichia 6). Other reviews of Goldberg’s performance were mixed. Clive Barnes, from the New York Post said ‘“The problem is not that she is a woman…And it is certainly not that she is black…The trouble is that she seems completely out of style and out of sync with the production,’ while David Patrick Stearns of USA Today said ‘Goldberg is so effortlessly fun, you don’t really notice the dramatic gender change’” (Filichia 7). On July 15, 1997, Whoopi was then replaced by David Alan Grier as Pseudolus until the production’s closing on January 4, 1998 (Hutchins 11). The most recent major production of Forum was the 2004 National Theatre Production at the Olivier Theater in London, starring Desmond Barrit as Pseudolus, Philip Quast as Miles, Hamish McColl as Hysterium, and Isla Blair as Domina (who had previously played Philia in the 1963 production); this production ran for 66 performances and was produced by the Royal National Theater (Hutchins 12). It is obvious that Forum is a commercially successful show, since Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, and Nathan Lane all received Tony Awards for Best Actor for their performances as Pseudolus. “Despite the fact that the musical was given the Tony Award as Best Musical in 1962, Sondheim was never mentioned. His contribution to the show’s success was disregarded, discounted, and negated. The 1972 revival, however, was treated as a Sondheim triumph” with praise such as “Stephen Sondheim’s ‘music is superb: technically fresh, filled with melody, accurate in satire, and, most of all, theatrically conceived (Gordon 28).’” “Sondheim’s creative activity between the intervening years had established him as the creative musical talent in Broadway theater” (Gordon 28). An interesting aspect of the show that many may not realize at first is its direct connection to Greek and Latin roots through the names of the main characters. For example, Pseudolus, from the Latin root pseudo—meaning false or to lie, describes the character perfectly, as he is constantly concocting new stories and schemes. Senex, from the title for Senators describes an old man, and with his libidinousness it is quite ironic that “sex” is so obviously a part of his name. Domina means lady or mistress of the house, as evident by her role; in English this has become the root for “dominant” which describes her personality precisely. Erronius means wandering or straying, the character’s dominant action throughout the show. The name Hysterium definitely portrays his personality, as hysteria is characterized by uncontrollable emotional outbreaks, much like Hysterium’s panic in the song “I’m Calm.” The courtesan Tintinabula’s name, characterized by her noisy bells as she dances, means to jingle or ring, and of course the name of the twin courtesans, the Geminae, means paired or doubled. Philia, from the Latin root philus and the Greek root philos, meaning love or beloved, explains Hero’s obsession with her. Yet another connection to its Latin roots is one of Sondheim’s favorite laugh lines sung by Miles Gloriosus in “Bring Me My Bride,” the only exact translation from the Latin original, “I am a parade!” (Gordon 23). In the original play(s), Pseudolus was the slave of Callidorus, the young son of the Athenian nobleman, Simo (Answers Corporation). In Forum, when Lycus asks Pseudolus where he obtained the money to buy one of his courtesans, Pseudolus replies that it was “an unexpected legacy. My uncle Simo, the noted Carthaginian elephant breeder, came to an untimely end. He was crushed to death on the last day of the mating season” (Applause 31). “In Rome and Italy, in the four centuries between 200 BC and 200 AD, perhaps a quarter or even a third of the population was made up of slaves. Over time millions of men, women, and children lived their lives in a state of legal and social non-existence with no rights of any kind. Their role was to provide labour, or to add to their owners' social standing as visible symbols of wealth, or both” (Bradley 1-2). Roman slaves were the property of their owners, and were held in a state of total subjection. However, “slaves were human beings with minds of their own, and they didn't always obey their owners as unthinkingly as they were supposed to” (Bradley 1); Pseudolus is a prime example of this. According to Keith Bradley, professor of classics at the University of Notre Dame, slaves “in positions of responsibility might falsify record books, and embezzle money from their owners, or arrange for their own manumission (setting free)” (Bradley 3). Pseudolus successfully attempts to do this throughout the show, beginning with the song that expresses exactly what he desires most, to be “Free.” The song “serves to underline the primacy of the runaway slave idea in the plot, ennobled as the quest for freedom but continually brought low as a comic chase” (Banfield 101). “A familiarity with Stephen Sondheim’s lapidary lyrics makes apparent his understanding of the significant role that figures of repetition can play to convey a character’s emotional state. While much has been noted about Sondheim’s dazzling rhymes, he also instinctively knows when to eschew rhyme because of a character’s particular state of mind and to bind lines together via a series of repeated vowels or consonants, vowel-consonant combinations or repeated words or phrases” (Davis 29). One literary device that Sondheim uses in Forum is paroemion, an extreme alliteration in which every word in a phrase begins with the same letter(s). In “The House of Marcus Lycus,” the words “uncanny, unnerving, unblemished, untaught, unstinting, unswerving, unselfish, unbought…” as well as “expansive, explosive, exquisite and excruciating, exceeding, exciting, exhausting, but exhilarating” are representative of paroemion (Davis 29). Examples of assonance, the repetition of a stressed vowel sound preceded by a different consonant, can be found in “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” in lines such as “fiddling with her thimble” (Davis 29). In the same song, “wriggling in the anteroom, jiggling in the living room, giggling in the dining room, wiggling in the other rooms” is an example of symploce, repetition of words both at the beginning and ending of successive lines, combining anaphora and epistrophe. “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” can be considered the most vaudevillian song in Sondheim’s repertoire; its burlesque technique of developing a humorous situation by repetition and encore almost forces the audience to remember it. Double entendres and sexual innuendos like “Oh! Oh! Wouldn’t she be delightful? Living in…giving out” establish that burlesque quality. In “Pretty Little Picture,” the lyric “the boat and the bed and the boy and the bride!” is alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant sounds. “Pretty Little Picture” also makes an ironic reference to slavery in the lines “feel the roll of the playful waves, see the sails as they swell/ Hear the whips on the galley slaves—pretty little picture?”, definitely not from Pseudolus’s point of view. Another notable musical aspect of Forum is its use of refrain and motif songs. “A refrain song is one in which the title line is the point of arrival; when it is the point of departure, we may call it a motif song” (Banfield 107). ‘“Free’ is the simplest possible type of ‘refrain’ song. The one overwhelming idea that justifies the song’s existence is Pseudolus’s desire to be free; and it is accomplished in one note and one syllable” (Banfield 107). Contrastingly in “I’m Calm,” Sondheim constructs a motif song in which the pizzicato bass serves as an illustrative function of Hysterium’s frantic heartbeat in all of his anxiety. The opening number, “Comedy Tonight,” shares elements of both motif and refrain song types (Banfield 114-115). “It is surely the melodic equivalent of verbal wit: as incongruity, surprise, anticlimax, the momentary wrong-footing of semantics, musical pun—it is an essential identifier of the Broadway matrix on both media” (Banfield 115). “The wit is emphasized by the inventive rhyming and wordplay in which antitheses are neatly juxtaposed” (Gordon 22). Other songs worth analyzing include “Love, I Hear,” “Lovely,” and “That Dirty Old Man.” “Love, I Hear” expresses Hero’s tensions, fears, hopes, and anxiety about love through its broken musical and verse structure. Comparable to Tony’s “Maria” in West Side Story, Hero makes his lovesickness evident outside his lover’s house. In “Lovely,” “Philia, who has been taught ‘beauty, grace, and no more,’ sings: I’m lovely, all I am is lovely, lovely is the one thing I can do” (Gordon 27). The verb “do” renders a sexual connotation that emits a chuckle from the audience. However, this number is not exhausted in its “first time around,” for it is reprised in the second act when “the manipulative slave Pseudolus convinces the terrified Hysterium, disguised as a dead virgin, that he makes a beautiful corpse. The love duet, sung to reassure the quaking comic in drag, provides one of the funniest sequences in the Sondheim oeuvre” (Gordon 27). “That Dirty Old Man,” Domina’s lament, expresses her ambivalence toward Senex; she has simultaneous conflicting feelings about him. Domina is worried that Senex is cheating on her and hates him for it, but truly longs for his love. The theme of relationships and infidelity that surrounds several other Sondheim musicals, including Company and A Little Night Music is certainly evident in Forum as well. In addition to the theme of relationships, I also noticed a recurring theme of madness and character breakdown in Sondheim’s shows. With Forum being one of Sondheim’s earlier musicals, in observing those that follow it, particularly Anyone Can Whistle, Follies, and Sweeney Todd, it is clear that Sondheim has no trouble exposing the raw emotions of his characters. Just as the line in “Comedy Tonight” states, “goodness and badness, man in his madness,” Sondheim’s characters deal with these realities. In Anyone Can Whistle, absolute pandemonium occurs when the two groups of townspeople fight over which group is “normal” and which is insane during the thirteen minute finale song of Act I, “Simple.” Follies reveals the emotional troubles of every leading character through vaudeville-style numbers, particularly in the “Loveland” sequence. Last, but certainly not least, Sweeney Todd depicts a barber so intent on revenge that he slits the throats of his innocent victims and disposes of their bodies by baking them into meat pies. The final scene of Forum involves a chaotic chase across the stage with both Miles and Senex pursuing all three “Philia’s,” as Domina Hysterium, and the actual Philia are all wearing identical costumes. Meanwhile, the courtesans have escaped from the House of Marcus Lycus and the Eunuch is sent to retrieve them. Pseudolus, in trouble with Miles and his guards, pretends to take his own life before they can with the sleeping potion, but ends up drinking the love potion instead. Erronius, returning from his “fourth time around,” finds his long-lost children, Philia and Miles, at last, and the two realize that they are actually siblings. So, Philia and Hero are to marry after all, Pseudolus gets his freedom, Erronius gets his children, and Miles appropriately gets the Geminae twins. This madness also goes along with the theme of dissociation and misunderstanding in the musical. The song “Impossible” is a primary example of this, when Senex and Hero are thoroughly confused, for they fear they are both in a relationship with Philia despite their obvious age difference. In the British production, Frankie Howerd conveyed the dissociation between song and action in Forum perfectly: “instead of Senex as Prologus giving a résumé of the situation at the start of act 2, Howerd (Pseudolus) in improvisatory manner counted off on his fingers the songs that had already been sung as a way of recalling where the plot had gotten to. That it was a reminder to himself as an actor, not as a character, made it a perfect addition to the layers of dissociation in the musical” (Banfield 92). However, even with all the distraction of madness on stage, Pseudolus manages to break the fourth wall and involve the audience after the “Funeral Sequence.” Miles insists on giving his dead bride, who is really Hysterium, a farewell kiss, but Pseudolus tells him that she has the plague, causing the cast to run around wildly in fear, exiting in all directions. Then, Pseudolus turns directly to the audience and screams: “The plague! The plague! Run for your lives! Don’t just sit there! Run!” My high school’s production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was my first Sondheim musical and is actually what sparked my interest in his work. From playing a Geminae twin and being assistant choreographer for my show three years ago to taking a class devoted entirely to Sondheim’s musicals, my love and appreciation for the art of musical theater has exponentially increased over the last few years. “The show that Time magazine called ‘good clean, dirty fun’ has been running somewhere everywhere in the world for the last twenty-seven years” (Applause 5), but its dynamic characters and hilarious qualities will certainly allow it to thrive in amateur and professional theaters alike for many more years to come. ‘“Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!’ Broadway’s greatest farce is light, fast-paced, witty, irreverent and one of the funniest musicals ever written—the perfect escape from life’s troubles” (MTI 1).

Works Cited
Answers Corporation. “Pseudolus.” Answers.com. Oxford University Press, 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. .
Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. Four by Sondheim, Wheeler, Lapine, Shevelove and Gelbart . New York, NY: Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 2000. Print.
Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1993. Print.
Bradley, Keith. “Resisting Slavery in Ancient Rome.” BBC. The BBC, 5 Nov. 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. .
Davis, Sheila. “No rhyme before its time.” The Sondheim Review: 29-31. Print.
Filichia, Peter. “Goldberg brings a rap sensibility to Forum.” The Sondheim Review 3.4 (1997): 6-7. Print.
Gordon, Joanne. Art Isn’t Easy: The Theater of Stephen Sondheim. Carbondale, IL: Da Capo Press, 1990. Print.
Hutchins, Michael H. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide. N.p., 5 Oct. 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. .
MTI Enterprises, Inc. “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.” Music Theatre International. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. .
Patinkin, Sheldon. No Legs, No Jokes, No Chance. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2008. Print.
Sjsondheim.com. “Synopsis- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” The Quotable Stephen Sondheim Page. N.p., 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. .