A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at New Line Theatre at the Marcelle

You think we're confused by sex, gender, and love today? Get a load of the Romans!Master songwriter Stephen Sondheim and comic playwright and screenwriter Burt Shevelove took the classical Roman comedies of Plautus, mashed them together with American vaudeville, and came up with one of the great musical farces of all time, every bit as smart and subversive as Sondheims later shows. In 1962, this show satirized Americas hang-ups about sex; today, the show asks lots of complicated questions weve all been asking lately, about sex, gender, and more.Sondheim was an honorary member of the New Line board for almost thirty years, and he was a regular New Line donor before his recent death. New Line has produced seven other Sondheim shows over the years.The music critic for The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, wrote about the show, For all the talk of Forum harking back to the days of good, clean farce, theatrically it is an experimental work. It completely subverts the heritage of what is called the book show, handed down by Rodgers and Hammerstein, where the songs emerge from the plot. In Forum, the songs purposely interrupt the farcical plot, giving the audience a needed break from the madcap hysterics. The show was nominated for eight Tony Awards and won six, including Best Musical, Best Producer, Best Book, and Best Director. There have been multiple Broadway revivals, in 1972 with Phil Silvers, and 1996 with Nathan Lane, and later in the run, Whoopi Goldberg.

Authors

• Burt Shevelove
• Larry Gelbart
• Plautus
• Stephen Sondheim

Tony Awards and Nominations for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum