Change is in the air at Geva
Theatre Center as the 2016-17 season kicks off. An extensive, seven-year
renovation project, brand new housing for actors nearby, and the addition of
new executive and development directors is ushering in a new era for the
regional theater.
Because of
the renovations, the season opening was pushed back a full month. Playing off
the comedic success of last season’s best-selling “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” the opener chosen for this season is “A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” with music and lyrics by Stephen
Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. The show opened on Broadway in 1962, winning the
Tony Award for Best Musical.
In the
opening show-within-a-show number, “Comedy Tonight,” the plot is thoroughly explained
to the audience: boy sees girl, boy wants girl, slave wants freedom, slave is
promised freedom if he can get girl for boy. The show mixes classic Greek
mythology, farce, satire, and a pinch of vaudevillian: it’s a comedy (of
errors) tonight.
A certain
type of actor usually plays the lead, Pseudolus (the
Greek word for “faker”). It takes a character actor who can also sing — more
difficult to find than it sounds — for the sort of “sidekick” type character
who is suddenly thrust center stage and trusted with the fate of the show.
Famed stage and screen actor Zero Mostel (who also
played roles like Max in “The Producers” and Tevye in
“Fiddler on the Roof”) originated the role, and Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldberg
have both played the role in revival productions. Steve Rosen, a Pittsford
Sutherland graduate who has gone on to star in both stage and screen
productions around the nation, makes his Geva debut
in this role. Rosen easily steals the show. He’s engaging to the point of
breaking the fourth wall with a wink, but talented enough to be taken
seriously.
His
counterpart is Hysterium (the hilarious Mark Bedard), slave-in-chief for the same family Pseudolus serves. A host of younger actors — including SUNY
Geneseo junior Jessica Murphy — play the Greek youth
and courtesans (and have physiques that showcase the primarily skin-tight,
revealing costumes designed by Devon Painter).
The only
thing that challenges Rosen for the spotlight is 2 Ring Circus, a New York
City-based group that combines aerial arts, acrobatics and musical theater to
add an impressive physical showcase to “A Funny Thing.” The performers — Joshua
Dean, Ben Franklin, Kenneth Ziegler, and Lani Corson
— are trained actors as well, and hold actual roles in the show (The Proteans and Vibrata,
respectively). Choreography by Rommy Sandhu plays
nicely into this, with lots of colorful props and missed connections in the
fast-paced numbers.
Director
Melissa Rain Anderson is known and loved by Geva
audiences for her recurring roles in “A Christmas Carol” and her sold-out
directing success of last year’s “Spamalot,” and
2013’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Anderson excels with works
that rely on comedic timing, and this production is another such achievement.
A cartoonish
feel from the set design by Adam Koch, lighting by Brian Lilienthal, and sound
effects by Bart Fasbender builds the show’s world
around the audience, while the orchestra under the stage (conducted by Don Kot) doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves for performing
at Sondheim’s pace.
“A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” is silly, satirical, bawdy vaudeville
masquerading as musical theater. At first glance, there’s little substance —
but upon closer examination, it’s a show that feels eerily relevant. Scantily
clad courtesans parade around, pageant-style, while
male characters treat them with the same amount of respect one might expect
from a certain presidential candidate.
But unlike
this year’s presidential election, there truly is something for everyone in
this show. Even those who balk at the see-through storyline (and costumes) or
roll their eyes at the constant puns will find a laugh during the two-hour run
— and that’s something everyone could use.
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2016.
