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written by Stephen Sondheim, directed by Des McAnuff

Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford

June 20-November 1, 2009

"Sondheim Meets the Three Stooges"

If you are a fan of the Three Stooges or a young male going through puberty, the Stratford Festival has just the show for you--Stephen’s Sondheim’s 1962 musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”.  Of course, “Forum”, with a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart based on three comedies by the Roman playwright Plautus (251-183 bc), is intended as an entertainment for intelligent adults as witness the intricate rhymes and allusions of Sondheim’s lyrics.  Yet, in the hands of director Des McAnuff any notion of the work as witty or clever is obscured by the cartloads of shtick and slapstick he dumps on it.

The moment the grey wig flies off the conductor at the upbeat and the three Proteans perform a series of hoary old vaudeville routines during the overture, you know that McAnuff is in full “anything-for-a-laugh” mode.  There’s no point, it seems, in having someone fall into the pit once if you can do it three more times.  In a typical scene Domina sings her one big song “That Dirty Old Man” and with every one of her gestures knocks over her slave Hysterium.  As with falling in the pit, this might be funny once but becomes tedious with repetition.  It also effectively distracts us from what Domina is singing.  The show may be a farce, but the words and music are by Stephen Sondheim and it is annoying to say the least to be constantly distracted from both by McAnuff’s nonstop knockabout staging.  Decorations on Erronius’ house sing along at one point, and architectural features on the two others react to certain words.  I don’t suggest that “Forum” is a delicate blossom of a show, but McAnuff’s directorial overkill means that the production, unlike the musical itself, sounds the same brash note from beginning to end and drowns out any of Sondheim’s wit or cleverness.  Bruce Coughlin’s orchestrations, making much use of the slide-whistle, drums and cymbals to underscore the McAnuff’s unending series of pratfalls, distorts Sondheim into Looney Tunes cartoon music.

Looney Tunes rather than Plautus seems inform the design.  John Arnone’s sets for the three houses in pink, yellow and green intentionally clash.  Why the interior of Marcus Lycus‘ house is in Senex’s house and vice versa is a mystery, since the interior of Erronius’ house manages to stay where it is.  Dana Osborne costume’s look intentionally cheap, rather like the type of polyester and tinsel Halloween costumes you might buy at the drugstore.  The three Eunuchs, played by the Proteans, are dressed like Coneheads and continually bump into each other while making incomprehensible mumblings.  Like the sets and costumes, Kevin Fraser’s lighting is as garish as possible, the cyclorama changing to a new clashing colour at the close of every song. 

It’s really too bad that McAnuff feels he has to make the comedy funnier, always a fatal mistake, because he has assembled a nearly ideal cast that would thrive under more measured direction.  Bruce Dow, Stratford’s own Nathan Lane but with a stronger voice, was born to play the role of the wily slave Pseudolus.  His attitude of faux-innocence is hilarious and his comic timing impeccable.  Stephen Ouimette is excellent as his anxiety-ridden foil, the slave Hysterium, who always assumes the worst will happen without knowing that things can be even worse than he imagines.  Randy Hughson is a fine Senex, comic both as the hen-pecked husband and as an old man preparing for an unexpected fling.  As Hero, Mike Nadajewski has a fine voice but looks ridiculous in a too-short chitoniskos.  McAnuff has him prance about the stage in silly balletic dance during his only solo song “Love, I Hear” so that you can’t really appreciate the music or the words. 

Cliff Saunders is an oddly mincing Marcus Lycus with little hint of vice about him.  Dan Chameroy is well-cast as muscular Miles Gloriosus, but McAnuff seems intent on mitigating the threat he represents by giving him acrophobia not in the script.  Danger heightens comedy and to soften it just for the sake of yet another joke ruins its effect.  Brian Tree is very funny as the aged Erronius, but McAnuff has him run his circuits of Rome as if her were the Energizer bunny--another silly touch that goes against the character.  Jordan Bell, Stephen Cota and Julius Sermonia are the hard-working Proteans who play slaves, citizens, soldiers and eunuchs, as usual in this production with too much extraneous business.  Anyone who saw Chilina Kennedy in “the President” at the Shaw Festival last year knows she can make the stereotypical dumb blonde seem fresh, and that’s exactly what she does here as Philia.  The tall Deann deGruijter certainly looks the part of the Senex’s domineering wife, but her singing voice proves not to match her appearance. 

          

This may be the first time that the Stratford Festival has presented the musical, but the La Jolla Playhouse where McAnuff was Artistic Director from 1983-1994 and 2000-2007 presented it in 1990 directed by McAnuff.  If one compares the creative teams of both productions, one notes a surprising number of similarities.  The credits for Choreographer (Wayne Cilento), Musical Staging (Des McAnuff and Wayne Cilento), Set Design (John Arnone), Dramaturge (James Magruder), Physical Comedy Consultant (Jeff Gordon), Orchestrator (Bruce Coughlin) and Incidental Music Arranger (Ted Sperling) are exactly the same for both productions.  This suggests that the present Stratford staging is in reality a remount of the 1990 La Jolla production.  Coughlin’s orchestrations are called “new” in the 1990 La Jolla programme but not at Stratford.  If this is just a remount or re-creation of the La Jolla production it would explain references in the production that will mean nothing to an Ontario audience.  In the very last repeat of the chorus of “Comedy Tonight” that closes the show, instead of singing “Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!”, there is a loud rumbling over the speakers, the lights dim and a strobe kicks in.  The cast sings, “Earthquake tomorrow, comedy tonight!”  Why this change in Sondheim’s text, one wonders.  California audiences in 1990 would remember quite well the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake of October 17, 1989, that happened during the World Series held in San Francisco only seven months before “Forum” premiered at La Jolla.  Ontario audiences will not have a clue why the text is altered, except to think the scene has inexplicably changed from Rome to Pompeii.

Opera companies always mention in the programme when a production is borrowed, remounted or re-created.  Why does Stratford not do this?  One assumes it would reveal the say truth that McAnuff is passing off a 20-year-old production as new.  Michael Langham staged many versions of “Love’s Labours Lost” at the Festival, but each time he revisited the material and presented something new.  Re-creating a 1990 production seems to suggest that either McAnuff has only one idea per show, can’t spend the time to think of a new presentation or thinks the Stratford audience will be too dumb to notice. 

The situation is sad and not at all funny since it shows a disdain both for the Festival and for the public.  But unless you think seeing people fall down or get hit every other minute for two hours is hilarious, you won’t find this “Funny Thing” all that funny either.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive

Photo: Bruce Dow and cast member of Funny Thing. ©David Hou.