Review: A FUNNY THING HAPPEND ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM at Lido 2

After almost a year-long closure for renovations, following its opening as a musical theater venue with a version of Cabaret, perfectly fitting the Lido 2 Paris, this A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum also takes advantage of The Remains of legendary Parisian cabaret life, propping up the water works from underground during one of the songs in the Act 2, to astonishing effect! 

Passionate about Stephen Sondheim during his reign as director of the Châtelet theater—where he introduced grateful French audiences to the genius of the great master, starting with A Little Night Music in 2009, followed by Sweeney Todd in 2010, Sunday in the Park with George in 2012, Into the Woods in 2014, and last but not least Passion, directed by Fanny Ardant in 2016—Jean-Luc Choplin is excited to reopen Lido 2 by continuing the Parisian Sondheim saga with the first and longest running Broadway show for which the legend wrote both the music and the lyrics, even if it is not far from his best work, perhaps because all of its best songs are in Act 1. 

Inspired by the ancient playwright Plautus (254-184 BCE), Forum opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in 1962 and ran for 1,964 performances and 8 reviews, starring Zero Mostel who reprised his part of Pseudolus for the successful, but musically abridged, movie directed by Richard Lester in 1966. The show was revived with Phil Silvers as the lead in 1972, and in 1996 it played again with Nathan Lane in the lead, who won the Tony for Best Actor and who was later replaced by Whoopi Goldberg, running for 715 performances. The last major revival was at The National Theatre in London in 2004.  

Riding the recent wave of burlesque-flavored musicals in Paris, starting with the surprise success of The Producers in 2022, currently being followed by Spamalot in the same Théâtre de Paris, Forum is camped up to the max here, and director Cal McCrystal, fresh from directing Ian McKellan in Mother Goose, is a natural choice for that effect. 

Stepping into the shoes of American actor Richard Kind, Rufus Hound, in one of his very first musical endeavors after playing the dad in The Boy in the Dress at the Royal Shakespeare Company, gives a winning performance, starting off as the perfect emcee in “Comedy Tonight”, one of the best ever Broadway opening numbers and the perfect follow up to “Wilkommen” last year for the Lido. Completing the all-English cast, all brilliant, are Andrew Pepper as Hysterium, Patrick Ryecart as Senex, David Rintoul as Erronius, Martyn Ellis as brothel owner Marcus Lycus, the irrepressible John Owen-Jones as Gloriosus (the youngest Jean Valjean in the West End and on Broadway), and French-born Valérie Gabail, but the evening belongs to the young Neima Naouri (having made her début at The National Theatre in the musical Hex), who as the ingenue delivers the bast ballad of the score, “Lovely”, and playing Hero perfectly Josh St Clair, trained at Arts Ed, recently starring as Gino Bartali in the musical Glory Ride at the Charring Cross Theatre, and appearing in the original Hey Old Friend Sondheim birthday tribute at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. 

One of the show’s strengths is the scenic design by Tim Hatley (My Fair Lady, Life of Pi, Dream Girls, Back to the Future, Ghost), who conveys the spirit of vaudeville too a tee. Lighting by Giuseppe de Iorio, who previously worked on Singing in the Rain and My Fair Lady at Châtelet, is equally effective, but the most contemporary and daring touch comes from the choreography by Carrie-Ann Ingrouille, acclaimed for her work on SIX, and the equally risqué costumes by Takis. As in many recent productions at Châtelet, Gareth Valentine is always a welcome pleasure as musical director, conducting a 16-piece band. 

A glorious and grand scale production of a lesser known and not so often done Sondheim gem, despite being his most commercially successful. Forum is not to be missed until February 4th. 

 

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