A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Paperback, 128 pages ISBN: 9781854591456Publication Date:
8 Jul 2004
Size: 198mm x 129mm£13.99 £11.19You save £2.80 (20%)
First Staged:
Broadway, 1962; West End, 1963

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

By Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart

Paperback £13.99£11.19

  • Best Musical, Tony Awards - 1962

A bawdy, fast-paced, raunchy comedy musical from one of the world's most influential and innovative creators of musical theatre, loosely based on the plays of Plautus.

Pseudolus, a simpering slave, is trying to win his own freedom by cooking up a romance for his master's son, Hero, with the pretty young virgin Philia. But there's a problem – not only is Philia owned by Marcus Lycus, an infamous courtesan dealer, but she's also already promised to swaggering soldier Miles Gloriosus... and neither of them are keen to give her up.

Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, with a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, ran for three years on Broadway. The first British production, starring Frankie Howerd as the cowardly slave Pseudolus, ran almost as long and spawned the TV series Up Pompeii!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum won the 1962 Tony Award for Best Musical.

Press Quotes

'The funniest, bawdiest and most enchanting musical that Plautus, with a little help from Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Lary Belbart, ever wrote'

New York Times

'Spectacularly generous when it comes to the gags... one of the most exuberant opening numbers ever penned... The comic plot never stops boiling in a show that creates mounting farcical mayhem with rare precision... a brilliantly crafted hit... preposterously enjoyable'

Daily Telegraph

'A brilliant synthesis of stock characters from Plautus... a vertiginously funny show'

Guardian

'Simply irresistible... blissfully hilarious... a glorious gag-fest... A delirium of good, clean, filthy fun... a cornucopia of delight'

Independent

'Gloriously mischievous'

The Times

'Delightful... just sit back and enjoy it'

Financial Times
Paperback,128 pages ISBN: 9781854591456Publication Date:
8 Jul 2004
Size: 198mm x 129mm£13.99 £11.19You save £2.80 (20%)

Also by Stephen Sondheim:

Sunday in the Park with George
Getting Away With Murder
Follies
Assassins
Road Show
Company: The Complete Revised Book and Lyrics
Sweeney Todd
Company
Pacific Overtures
Passion
A Little Night Music
Gypsy
Into the Woods

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