A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962)
Book: Burt Shevelove en Larry Gelbart
Inspired by comedies by Plautus
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In short: A Funny Thing is a musical farce set in ancient Rome. It was Sondheim’s Broadway debut as a composer-lyricist. The show was a success and was adapted into a film in 1966.
This is the funniest, bawdiest and most enchanting Broadway musical
clive barnes (influential theater critic between 1965 and 2008)
that Plautus, with a little help from Stephen Sondheim,
Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbert, ever wrote.
Overview A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - background and excerpts
The first Broadway show for which Sondheim wrote both lyrics and music was a successful farce based on plays by Titus Maccius Plautus: A Funny Thing happened on the Way to the Forum. The title references the stereotypical opening line of vaudeville comedians.
Plot Summary
Set in ancient Rome, the musical follows the clever slave Pseudolus, who tries to win his freedom by helping his master, Hero, win the love of the beautiful slave Philia. However, Philia has already been promised to a general, leading to a series of comic misunderstandings and disguises.
Reception
The musical was well received by critics and audiences at its premiere. It was praised for its humor, fast pace, and inventive mix of farce and vaudeville elements. Critics especially admired the witty dialogue, comic timing, and high-energy performances, while audiences enjoyed the catchy songs and hilarious situations. The show had a successful Broadway run of over two years and won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. However, Sondheim received relatively little acclaim for his work on the show—even missing out on a nomination. Notably, every actor who played the role of Pseudolus on Broadway won a Tony for the part: Zero Mostel (1962), Phil Silvers (1972), and Nathan Lane (1996).
The film adaptation of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumreleased in 1966, received mixed reactions. Some critics appreciated the film for its slapstick humor and the strong performances of the cast, including Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, and Buster Keaton, while others felt the film failed to fully capture the spirit and energy of the original Broadway production. Nonetheless, the film was moderately successful with audiences, who enjoyed the comedic antics and colorful depiction of ancient Rome. While the film didn’t achieve the iconic status of the stage version, it remained a beloved adaptation for fans of classic musical comedies.
Uncharacteristically Sondheim
Sondheim considered A Funny Thing “the tightest, most satisfyingly plotted and gracefully written farce” he’d ever seen, but he found the lyrics for the show the hardest he’d ever written. This difficulty arose because the farce setting left no room for songs to explore emotional journeys; instead, the songs needed to amplify the moment. This type of song belonged to a musical tradition that Sondheim was actively trying to move away from. Additionally, he felt he had given in to displaying his lyrical cleverness, drawing attention to himself rather than to the characters and story, emphasizing the cleverness of the lyrics over genuinely funny moments. Although this style was typical in an earlier era (think Cole Porter), it felt—sometimes to Sondheim’s regret—out of place in its time.
A telling comment came from playwright James Goldman, who reviewed Sondheim’s early drafts for the show. Goldman thought both the script and score were brilliant but concluded they didn’t quite match. Sondheim agreed with this assessment for the rest of his life.
The result is a collection of songs about straightforward, comic situations that almost feel “un-Sondheim,” yet the language and music unmistakably bear his mark.
Nothing with gods. Nothing with fate.
Weighty affairs will just have to wait!
All I am is lovely,
Lovely is the one thing
I can do.
The bong of the bell of the buoy in the bay,
and the boat and the boy
and the bride are away!
Video excerpts (in show's order)
- “Comedy Tonight” is the opening number that was hard to get right. Here, you can see versions by Zero Mostel and Geoffrey Rush. Only after replacing three previous opening numbers with this one did A Funny Thing become a Broadway success. One of the previous songs was later used as the opening number for The Frogs.
- “Lovely” was originally a love duet that showcased the shyness of one character and the simplicity of the other. The film clip illustrates this. Carol Burnett and Ruthie Henshall later added a slightly different comic twist to it in the Sondheim revue Putting it together .
Mark the magnificent muscles of steel.
I am my ideal!
- “Everybody ought to have a maid” at the BBC Proms 2010 speaks for itself. Attentive listeners may notice, however, that beneath the comedic surface, the lyrics also reveal differences between the four characters. A Dutch version from the revue Putting it Together is also available.
- “Bring me my bride” is the song in which the self-satisfied general arrives to claim his Philia.
Stephen Sondheim about A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
“Although I do think that the book of Forum is the tightest, most satisfyingly plotted and gracefully written farce I’ve ever encountered […], I don’t think that farces can be transformed into musicals without damage – at least not good musicals. The tighter the plotting the better the farce, but the better the farce the more the songs interrupt the flow and pace. […]
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was a bittersweet experience for me. The sweet was all in the writing, in the excitement of getting back to composing music and in the sheer pleasure of spending so much time in the company of Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, two of the funniest and wittiest men I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. The bitter was the show’s out-of-town try-out. […] Worse yet, the show’s problems caused tensions among Burt and Larry and me that took months to resolve.
When we opened on Broadway the bitter began to outweigh the sweet two to one: the reception was ecstatic – for everything but the songs. […] As I sat at home licking my wounds and watching everyone receive their silver disks and thank one another profusely on national television, I had nothing to console myself with but the knowledge that the show was a huge success and I would make some money. It was, in fact, the biggest hit (in its Broadway run) that I’ve ever been connected with.”
More A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: audio and video
Films/full shows/concerts
Go to More Sondheim for our Sondheim Archives.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in the Netherlands
Most recent production
M-LAB [radio play]
Opening: May 28th, 2010, M-Lab Amsterdam
Cast: Jon van Eerd (Pseudolus), Barry Beijer (Mysterium), Martine Sandifort (Dominia), Paul Groot (Senex), Joost Kramer (Hero), Hiske Bongaarts (Philip) and others.
Translation: Daniël Cohen
Director: Daniël Cohen
Reviews of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Original production (1962)
“George Abbott, who has been around a long time but surely staged nothing for the forum mob, has forgotten nothing and remembered everything. He has engineered a gay funeral sequence to a relentlessly snappy march by Stephen Sondheim. He has used mixed identities, swinging doors, kicks in the posterior, double takes and all the rest of the familiar paraphernalia with the merciless disingenuousness of a man who knows you will be defenseless. Mr. Sondheim’s songs are accessories to the pre-meditated offense.” – Howard Taubman, New York Times (1962)
1966 film adaptation
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – after the [1962 Stephen Sondheim] stage musicomedy of the same name – will probably stand out as one of the few originals of two repetition-weary genres, the film musical comedy and the toga-cum-sandal ‘epic’. Flip, glib and sophisticated, yet rump-slappingly bawdy and fast-paced, Forum is a capricious look at the seamy underside of classical Rome through a 20th-century hipster’s shades.” – Variety (1965)
Broadway revival (1972)
“Everyone ought to have a favorite Broadway musical. Personally my favorite for 10 years has been A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Last night at the Lunt‐Fontanne Theater A Funny Thing happened once again, and I fell in love with it as desperately as ever. This is the funniest, bawdiest and most enchanting Broadway musical that Plautus, with a little help from Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbert, ever wrote.
What the authors of A Funny Thing have done is to take a sampling of Plautus’s kind of humor and link it with our contemporary sense of fun. The results are not merely hilarious, they are also immeasurably endearing.
Few musicals have been so well‐crafted as this. Mr. Sondheim’s music is original and charming, with considerable musical subtlety but a regard for down‐to‐earth show-biz vigor that is precisely what is needed. And as always, his lyrics are a joy to listen for. The American theater has not had a lyricist like this since Hart or Porter. The book by Mr. Shevelove and Mr. Gelbart is, deep down where it matters, all farce, and I salute its cheap and stylish vulgarity.” – Clive Barnes, The New York Times (1972)
Broadway revival (1996)
“This brazenly retro Broadway musical, inspired by Plautus, is almost as timeless as comedy itself. Here’s a glorious, old-fashioned farce that, with its vintage Stephen Sondheim score and its breathless book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, celebrates everything that man holds least dear but can’t deny himself: lust, greed, vanity, ambition; in short, all of those little failings that make man human.
Yet for all of its disguises, mistaken identities, pratfalls and leering jokes, A Funny Thing is as sophisticated as anything now on Broadway. In its own lunatic way, it’s both wise and rigorously disciplined. Easy sentimentality is nowhere to be found here; in its place: the kind of organized chaos that leads to sheer, extremely contagious high spirits. […]
Mr. Sondheim’s score both serves the comedy and provides a sort of commentary on it. From “Comedy Tonight,” the rousing anthem that opens the show and provides the finale, A Funny Thing is propelled as much by its witty, comically inane love songs and patter songs as by its book. […]
Mr. Sondheim is being too modest when he suggests that his songs could be removed and nobody would miss them. His music and lyrics are absolutely integral to the evening’s fun.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times (1996)
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