A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Libretto

by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove, Larry Gelbart

Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart Introduction by Larry Gelbart "This brazenly retro Broadway musical, inspired by Plautus, is as timeless as comedy itself." -Vincent Canby, The New York Times "The most urbane and literate musical comedy text ever conceived." -John Simon, New York magazine

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Musicals, Fiction, Classics, Humor

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1961

About the author

Stephen Joshua Sondheim was an American musical and film composer and lyricist, winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (seven, more than any other composer), multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described as the Titan of the American Musical.

His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. He was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981.

Reviews

[Barry Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sondheim's first Broadway show for which he did lyrics and music. It isn't a score I revisit very often, mainly because it just isn't great. The only songs that have managed to have any legacy outside of the show and usually the only numbers I listen to are Comedy Tonight and Everybody Ought To Have A Maid. I don't think anybody would call this a great Sondheim show but it is a nice document of what he was doing before he became the grand seigneur of musical theatre.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

PHILIA: Be brave, Hero.
HERO: For us there will never be happiness.
PHILIA: We will have to learn to be happy without it.

I've seen a number of Sondheim musicals live (some in their original productions) but - even though co-author Larry Gelbart tells us in his intro that '... Forum' continues to be performed "somewhere everywhere in the world" (to this day) - I'd not seen a stage production or read its stage script. 

But I understand why it wasn't considered for production at my high school. Catholic nuns would have felt... nervous... allowing their students to act the parts of courtesans and flesh peddlers - even if the whole thing were tongue-in-cheek. Nuns are also not all that fond of tongues in cheeks.

I've seen the film version many times - and I enjoy it immensely. But that seems to put me in an audience apart. It seems a considerable number of the musical's fans feel that the film is a misfire, being a bastardization. This is mainly due to many of the songs being dropped in transition to the screen. 

But in truth, for the most part, the songs cut are those which would play much better on a stage than on film. They slow up the action considerably. Onstage, such downtimes are valuable when the genre being played is farce and the general pacing is frenetic; both audiences and actors get a rest. In film, that's less of a requirement. (The only cut song that I think could have been filmed to its benefit is 'That'll Show Him'. It's a very funny song and would have played well.) 

For a comedy that authors Gelbart and Burt Shevelove worked on for five years (!), one might have expected more jokes than there actually are (the good ones that are there are good indeed). But, again, this is farce; the bulk of the humor is dependent on stage business ("the comedian's bag of tricks", as Gelbart says) so one imagines that a lot of the humor is visual (either on the faces, with the bodies, or the amount of time spent on running in out of entrances). 

This, of course, was Stephen Sondheim's first assignment as both composer and lyricist. It's generally a very pleasing and clever score - with two standout numbers: 'Comedy Tonight' and 'Everybody Ought to Have a Maid'. He would go on to write many, much better musical scores. But this remains the only show of his that's distinctively funny (esp. from start to finish). Apparently he very much meant what he wrote, with 'Tragedy tomorrow... comedy tonight!'

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely would need to see this one rather than reading it since farces are just like that - but Sondheim really always is so clever

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite plays I’ve seen and it was nice to relive it.

[Ed Lehman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had seen the play at least once and the movie several times...and of course enjoyed them. I didn't expect the humor to come through so much in the written form. I was so wrong. I occasionally chuckle when reading my daily fare...but this book actually had me in belly laughs that were so prolonged that it began to be painful. Maybe I was just in the right mood to receive the comedy...but I highly recommend that everyone give this short read a try.
The story involves a slave during the Roman Empire period trying to gain his freedom by providing his master's son the woman he is in lust with. Only problem is that the woman lives in the bordello next door...and she has already been bought by someone else who is coming to get her soon. In the meanwhile, the Master, thinks that the girl is the new maid...who he intends to take advantage of. Add in a large dose of characters taking on the identities of others... the master's wife returning to also mis-read events and the general hectic series of machinations by the slave and hilarity not just ensues...but romps all over the place.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This show is a classic, and while some may think it has aged badly, the truth is that it remains so solidly itself while being so entirely flexible that it really can't age at all- meaning it's the best kind of classic there is. But truly, the content is so wacky that one can cast ANYONE in this play, chuck realism out the window the same way historical accuracy was, and that's its charm (along with the fun Sondheim score). All you need is truly need his hysterical actors with good timing, and lots of sheets and doors.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, yikes, this is dated, but I still think at the core it is very funny. Pseudolus has so many good bits, and I love how different the setting is from anything else in musical theater. It's too bad that the women are all dim, or shrewish, or sex objects, and not deeply involved in the story.

Even a lesser Sondheim score has real gems (who doesn't love Comedy Tonight?) I would hate a steady diet of shows like this in the theater, but as a balance to other fare, this is still very much worth producing.

[Zachary Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!"

This is a wonderfully dumb and hilarious musical. Some bits are pretty dated and not all of the music is steller (Comedy Tonight being the only song I can actually remember two days after finishing it), but for two sacred hours Sondheim got my brain to forget about the election, the depressingly warm November, and *gestures broadly at everything*. That is an achievement and for that I thank him. Excited to eventually see his other works

[John Beckham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Fun

Insights into the writing from one spent to literary prrvursors, Plautus. Lyrics - great for quotes. Light and easy read.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny, even as a script. The lyrics are so well done. Also, very very sexist.

[Emma Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually did this as a performance at my college. I played Philia. I still love the story and plot. The music is wonderful and I highly recommend listening if you have interest in this story.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty silly show.

[EMMA · Rating 3 out of 5]

i haven’t read a play since high school and it was a nice change of pace. especially reading a musical and putting on the songs as i read them.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently really enjoyed a live production, but I’m not sure that was due to the writing particularly as Sondheim was still green writing this one. But very fun idea!

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not really a musicals person, but my community theatre company is putting this on as our first ever musical, so I will be involved in a production. Forum is an interesting show for me because it builds on comic trends that go back at least to ancient Greek New Comedy, which were then passed down through Roman comic playwrights like Plautus and Terrence, through commedia del-arte, through early modern and French classical drama, rococo comedies, and into the modern era. And Forum points back to the Roman comedies that really solidified these as THE techniques of comedy, both through the Roman setting of the show and by naming the clever slave character Pseudolus, which is a direct reference to a Plautus character. Forum utilizes many of the stock characters and problems associated with Roman comedy, so it's definitely interesting for me as someone intrigued by the history of theatre.
https://youtu.be/6N2XPgO6Kh8

[Misti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I miss the funny part? Less than thrilling.

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 2 out of 5]

An amusing foray into the musicals of the 1960s. My issues with this play are less about my opinion of the book and more about my opinion of 1960s musicals. It seems that they are often safe, catchy, a little cheeky, but mostly they are meant to evoke joy and entertainment from the audience, rather than a serious statement. When I read this book, I felt as though the actual application of the text itself was more about getting the play done in many respects rather than making it good. That said, after two years and close to 1000 performances, it managed to sell tickets - furthermore, it has been revived many, many times over the decades since. It is cute, it is fun, but it doesn't make a statement. The origins of the text, Plautus, is skewed with the modern sensibilities of the theater, and it seems as though it may have worked for 1960s audiences, but today is a little weird and cumbersome. The value of the text is all in the way it is performed in the individual theaters that produce it, and I think that is where the beauty lies, rather than the text itself. To conclude, I think that if Plautus' audiences were to see their favorite characters in this new context, even they would be confused; but it would probably end with a plausible understanding and enjoyable feeling regardless of their confusion. Yes. A few funny things happen on the way to the forum, but they are awkward and rely on subtext at times. In the hands of the right director, the show could be a real hoot.

[Neil Schleifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

VERY loosely based on the comic plays of the Roman Plautus, Larry Gelbart's vaudvillian adaptation can be hillariously funny. Stephen Sondheim's lyrics and music often stand in odd counterpoint to the style of the libretto, offering disonant melodies and lyrics which are often to clever for the uneducated slaves and hypocritical masters who sing them. Still in all, it is a fast-paced farce that can easily be used in a curriculum as a modern adaptation of a classic style.

[Rebecca Moll]

If you like a play on words, silly humor, and just plain hilarity, then get yourself a copy of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Be sure to have wiki close by, for those a Greek and Roman names, as nothing is by chance in this freaking funny play. Read the intro too, good info to have before the curtain rises. Thanks D, we are on the same page as usual :)

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an excellent play. I really enjoyed reading it.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definately preferred the book to the movie. My theater did the stage show and it was interesting to see it performed on a live stage.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick romp into hilarity; from slapstick to political in-correctness. I play Domina. I ordered you to come see me in it on May 6-7, 2011! Did you forget? Well, you can read the play, then...

[Andrew Fry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading theater scripts that provide incite into the writing of the script as well. The script here is very funny, which I already knew, so I wanted a little back story as well.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun story. I had no idea what it was about before starting it, and I was pleasantly surprised!

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son will be playing Hero in a school production of this so I had to track it down and read it first. It is quite humorous and I look forward to seeing a life production of it.

[debbicat *made of stardust*]

Superb!

[Javier Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I left the tragedy for tomorrow and opted for this wonderful comedy tonight.