| "Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!" With that song, one of the most famous opening numbers ever, the brilliant career of Stephen Sondheim as a Broadway composer and lyricist was born. Sondheim had written lyrics for the classics West Side Story and Gypsy, but he wanted to compose as well, and after 1954's Saturday Night was derailed, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) gave him his first Broadway show. Based on the Roman comedies of Plautus, it's a light frothy entertainment (as promised in the opening) led by the outrageous Zero Mostel as the scheming slave Pseudolus. The Gordian knot of a plot also involves Jack Gilford as fellow slave Hysterium, Preshy Marker as the vacant Philia, Brian Davies as the young hero, Hero, and Ron Holgate as the testosterone-oozing soldier Miles Glorious. Sondheim the composer proves an ideal match for Sondheim the lyricist: you can hear halting uncertainty and not-yet-blossomed passion in "Love, I Hear," "I'm Calm" perfectly captures Hysterium's hysteria, and "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" is pure vaudeville genius. --David Horiuchi |
