Dear Friend, Table of Contents Welcome to A Funny Thing STC Board of Trustees Happened on the Way to the Comedy Tonight Forum, our second mainstage by Drew Lichtenberg 6 show of the 2013-2014 Season Board of Trustees W. Mike House Emeritus Trustees Title Page 9 and one of the enduring classics Michael R. Klein, Chair Jerry J. Jasinowski R. Robert Linowes*, of musical theatre. Robert E. Falb, Vice Chair Norman D. Jemal Founding Chairman About the Playwright 11 John Hill, Treasurer Scott Kaufmann James B. Adler Pauline Schneider, Secretary Abbe D. Lowell Heidi L. Berry* Cast 13 The production history of A Funny Thing Happened Michael Kahn, Artistic Director Bernard F. McKay David A. Brody* on the Way to the Forum reads as a long legacy Eleanor Merrill Melvin S. Cohen* Musical Numbers 14 Trustees Melissa A. Moss Ralph P. Davidson of firsts. Its characters are inspired by the works of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus, whose use Nicholas W. Allard Robert S. Osborne James F. Fitzpatrick Cast Biographies 15 Ashley M. Allen Stephen M. Ryan Dr. Sidney Harman* of songs and music has been considered by many Stephen E. Allis K. Stuart Shea Lady Manning Direction and an early form of musical theatre. In the 1960s, Anita M. Antenucci George P. Stamas Kathleen Matthews Jeffrey D. Bauman Bill Walton William F. McSweeny Design Biographies 20 Forum burst onto the stage as a farce—and the first Afsaneh Beschloss Lady Westmacott V. Sue Molina Broadway show in Stephen Sondheim’s career to William C. Bodie Rob Wilder Walter Pincus About STC 23 feature both his music and lyrics. D.C. has a special Landon Butler Suzanne S. Youngkin Eden Rafshoon Dr. Paul Carter Emily Malino Scheuer* Support 25 connection as well: it was here that the song Chelsea Clinton Ex-Officio Lady Sheinwald “Comedy Tonight” was added to solve a problematic Dr. Mark Epstein Chris Jennings, Mrs. Louis Sullivan For STC 38 show opener, following a pre-Broadway tryout at Andrew C. Florance Managing Director Daniel W. Toohey the National Theatre. Miles Gilburne Sarah Valente STC Staff 42 Barbara Harman Lady Wright John R. Hauge Audience Services 43 The Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Stephen A. Hopkins * Deceased A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Lawrence A. Hough marks yet another first, the STC mainstage directing debut of our Associate Director Alan Paul. Alan’s sense of comedy and timing and his boundless enthusiasm for musical theatre make him the perfect director for this production. I have great faith that this is only the beginning of a long, successful directing career for Alan. I feel confident you will see Photo from the original West End production of End production the original West from Photo his remarkable talent in tonight’s production, and you can say, “I saw his work at STC first!” Many of our talented cast members have a New York acting pedigree, on Broadway and beyond, and The Kneehigh production of several are making their first STC appearances in this production. Bruce Story, Pseudolus, was the brilliant Noël Coward’s Bottom in last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream here, and Tom Story endeared audiences in The Winter’s Tale last spring. Please help me warmly welcome all of our artists, as you enjoy this classic Brief Encounter Brief Encounter ‘comedy tonight.’ adapted and directed by Emma Rice Thank you for your continued patronage. originally commissioned and produced by David Pugh and by Simon Turtle. by Dafydd Rogers and Cineworld Warm regards, March 29–April 13 Lansburgh Theatre Michael Kahn Buy Now! Artistic Director Shakespeare Theatre Company The New York Observer 202.547.1122 Brief Encounter is generously sponsored by ShakespeareTheatre.org Dr. Paul and Mrs. Rose Carter 2 3 Take the next step... BE OUR GUEST costume rendering by by rendering costume Dream A Midsummer Night’s Jen Moeller. GO BEHIND THE SCENES ENJOY THE PATRONS LOUNGE New Become a Spain. Shakespeare Star Today! Membership starts at just $60. 480 7TH STREET, NW 202.628.7949 • Jaleo.com MEET THE Join today at ShakespeareTheatre.org/NewMember ARTISTS4 or call 202.547.1122 option 7. he wrote the lyrics for Plautus Potpourri, an irreverent adaptation of Plautus’ Mostellaria. In 1942, while getting his Master’s at Yale, Shevelove mounted a musical called When in Rome, based on two more of Plautus’ plays: Miles Gloriosus and Pseudolus. The Making of a Modern CoMedy ClassiC Comedy Tonight The third time would be the charm. Teaming with Larry Gelbart, a joke writer It’s the spring of 1962, and A Funny Thing late March, 1962, at the Shubert Theatre for Sid Caesar, and Stephen Sondheim, Happened on the Way to the Forum is in in New Haven, Sondheim came up with a a brilliant young songwriter fresh off the trouble. It had taken the talented trio of song called “Love is in the Air.” This song is success of writing lyrics for West Side Burt Shevelove, Larry Gelbart and Stephen charming, sweet and appears as underscore Story, Shevelove & Co. methodically pieced Sondheim four years and a seemingly at the top of Act Two. It also appears, for together a plot combining the best of Mosaic showing scene from Menander’s endless series of drafts to put the musical unknown reasons, in Mike Nichols’ film Plautus’ plays. The result, A Funny Thing Theophoroumene, c. 200 B.C. together. The show had gone through a The Birdcage, when Robin Williams and Happened on the Way to the Forum, The overall effect is of a crash course in the dizzying number of producers, directors Christine Baranski duet. In New Haven, features a veritable who’s who of ancient Plautine dramaturgy of mistaken identities, and stars before settling on Harold however, the number (and the show) didn’t Roman comedy: ingenious house slave stock characters and farcical reversals that Prince, George Abbott and Zero Mostel. work. Nobody could figure out why. As Larry Pseudolus, young lovers Hero and Philia, would define comedy through Shakespeare, Most frustratingly, there was no finale. Gelbart said, “Audiences laughed at the unhappy old married couple Senex and Molière and Shaw, all the way up to the Instead, Pseudolus and Hysterium crossed show but they didn’t like it.” Domina, lecherous pimp Marcus Lycus modern situation comedy. As Sondheim downstage and engaged the audience in a and his cast of courtesans and eunuchs, says, “Everybody thinks that it was whipped coy attempt at suspense: In April of 1962, Forum moved to the National Erronius, “the oldest man living in Rome” up over a weekend because it plays so Theatre in Washington, D.C. Still, the show and, of course, Miles Gloriosus, the ultimate easily. The plotting is intricate, the dialogue PSEUDOLUS. Come back tomorrow night felt unfinished. Richard Coe, the critic for The braggart warrior. The script also calls for is never anachronistic, and there are only and see Hysterium win his freedom— Washington Post, suggested the unthinkable, a Mostellaria, a haunted house which is two or three jokes—the rest is comic closing the show three weeks before it revealed to be nothing of the sort. situation. It’s almost like a senior thesis on HYSTERIUM. Oh Pseudolus! reached New York. George Abbott, who had two thousand years of comedy.” a reputation as “the show doctor,” was stuck. Above all else, Forum is a masterpiece of PSEUDOLUS. Or die in attempt! He was used to coming in at the last minute farcical plotting. As Gelbart would later • • • to fix Broadway shows before opening, but write: “Add or subtract one character and Curtain. how was he supposed to punch up his own his or her absence or altered presence Sondheim speaks the truth—mostly. One show? “I don’t know what we should do,” he affects the behavior of every other character thing was whipped up in a weekend. Back As fate would have it, the proper ending said, “I think we should call George Abbott!” in the piece.” Sondheim concurred, calling in 1962 in Washington, Forum was in would be found through changing the Forum the “tightest, most satisfyingly trouble. As a last, desperate measure, the • • • beginning. Forum’s original opening plotted and gracefully written farce I’ve team called in Jerome Robbins, who had number, “Invocation,” started in a suitably turned the play down in 1958 in order to Forum had started as a labor of love, an ever encountered.” Shevelove, Gelbart and classical tone: direct Gypsy. The problem, Robbins said, attempt to return “low comedy” to the Sondheim had achieved the seemingly was the opening number. It didn’t set up Broadway stage. As Shevelove said of impossible: a musical comedy that obeyed Gods of the theatre smile on us, the show. Sondheim replied that he had New York in the early 1960s, presumably the classical criteria laid out by Aristotle. In Those who look down on actors, already written a new opening number, in reference to musicals of the Oscar 1972, Shevelove noted the utter academic And I’m sorry to say who doesn’t? “Love is in the Air.” That song may be Hammerstein variety: “There were plenty seriousness of the project, easily mistaken Bless our show and smile on us. charming and hummable, Robbins replied, of touching, even tragic, lovers, plenty of for low-brow silliness: “We preserved the but it wasn’t funny. After a weekend spent dream ballets, and plenty of important classic unities of time, place, and action. But George Abbott didn’t like it. He didn’t at his piano, inspiration struck. Sondheim truths, stated and restated, but no fun.” We had no anachronisms or sly references think it was “hummable.” Consequently, to today.