Shows · A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Opened 1962
964 performances
Musical, Golden Age
In ancient Rome, the cunning slave Pseudolus schemes to win his freedom by helping his young master Hero win the beautiful courtesan Philia, who has been promised to a braggart warrior. Through a series of increasingly frantic deceptions involving mistaken identities, a domineering wife, and a lecherous old neighbor, Pseudolus outwits everyone and earns his liberty.
"A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM": the show's own period marketing line.
- Music
- Stephen Sondheim
- Lyrics
- Stephen Sondheim
- Book
- Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbart
Productions3 on Broadway
Songs4 songs
Comedy Tonight, Lovely, Everybody Ought to Have a Maid, Free
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (254–184 BC), specifically Curculio, Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus, and Mostellaria, the musical tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door. The plot displays many classic elements of farce, including puns, the slamming of doors, comedy of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as one another), and satirical comments on social class. The title derives from a line…
I laughed twice and thrice and started in all over again, and I now figure that if future seasons are going to be as skimpy and as dull as this one, I may have to have Funny Thing to keep me going every year, doctor's orders.
More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 336Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.