Volume 39, Number 09
Diversions/Arts
By Owen Schaefer
TIPS’s Toga Party
Even after Johnny Depp started spattering silver screens with ribbons of gore in Tim Burton’s adaptation of Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim somehow escaped the dubious distinction of becoming a household name. To musical theatre fans, he is one of the top names in the industry. He has a mantelpiece full of Tony awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and has had a performing arts center named after him. But long before his razor-swinging Jacobean tragedy hit Hollywood or Broadway, Sondheim was exploring the other side of the dramatic coin: comedy.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was Sondheim’s first Broadway work as both lyricist and composer, and while it may lack some of the musical complexity of later shows like the Pulitzer-winning Sunday in the Park with George or Into the Woods, it remains a theater staple for its clever lyrics, singable songs, and for generally being a funny romp. After all, who doesn’t love a toga? Certainly not the Tokyo International Players, who are bringing Forum to the stage as their third production this season.
If you insist on taking a highbrow approach, Forum is not only a rollicking farce, but to some extent, a study in ancient Roman comedy. Sondheim based it on a mash-up of works adapted from early-Roman playwright Plautus. In fact, two of Forum’s characters—the braggart antagonist Miles Gloriosus, and a clever slave named Pseudolus—are plucked directly from plays by Plautus, who in turn adapted them from stock Greek characters; it seems that toga-clad Roman audiences preferred to laugh at the scandals—and sandals—of the Greeks.
The story circles around three households in ancient Rome, and includes the classical comic themes of forbidden love, clever schemes, not-so-clever schemes, lost siblings, cheating husbands, and mistaken identities. But leave your ancient literature at the door; Sondheim’s work owes more to vaudeville than Virgil.
Jonathan Hagans, the show’s director, promises that the pace will be anything but classical. Hagans, who also worked on last year’s swashbuckling production of Pirates of Penzance, and choreographer Jason Hancock, plan a spectacle of acrobatics and slapstick, including a chase scene you’re not likely to forget.
Naturally, over the course of TIP’s hundred-plus-year lineage, the community theater group has seen a lot of faces come and go. But a sneak-peek performance of Forum’s highlights revealed a production shaping up both musically and conceptually. There has been something of a flow of talented new blood into the company—no razors involved. However, most of the principal characters are old hands. Charlie Lent and Stacey Powell take the leads as Hero and Phyllia, and the irrepressible Andrew Martinez plays Marcus Lycus. Keep a special eye out for Trenetta Jones, who is guaranteed to tear up the stage with her schizophrenic number That Dirty Old Man, and Ron Scott as Miles Gloriosus, who…well, “takes big steps.” You’ll see what he means.