A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum News

Most popular to theatre audiences from his title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of The Phantom of the Opera, Michael Crawford was in fact a star of the British stage and screen for almost two decades before.

Jim Brochu channels Zero Mostel in 'Zero Hour,' his solo show about the outsized performer, at Theater at St.

Most popular to theatre audiences from his title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of The Phantom of the Opera, Michael Crawford was in fact a star of the British stage and screen for almost two decades before.

You can't always judge a musical by its first number. But "Comedy Tonight," which opens "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," tells you from the get-go whether you'll be in good hands.

I bumped into Tony Walton, looking terrific, at the opening Wednesday night of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam.

The Show: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" The Place: Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam What is it?: A musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Larry Gebart and Burt Shevelove.

Talk about your change of pace. Last year, College of the Sequoias was getting ready to mount the sold-out run of the scarefest 'Dracula.' This year, the theater department picked the beloved madcap musical comedy 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' for its big fall production.

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" stars, clockwise from top, Nick Santa Maria , Barry Pearl , Michael Betts and Jeffrey Landman .

Though the members of the House Committee on Un-American Activities had a copy of Lucille Ball's signed 1936 communist registration card, they accepted her excuse that she joined the party just to please her grandfather, because her name wasn't Jaffe, Chodorov, Berman or Phillip Loeb.

Some days, you wish you didn't answer the phone. Today was that day. It was a friend telling me that Larry Gelbart had died.

OBITUARY: Larry Gelbart. Comic writer. Born Chicago, Illinois, February 25, 1928.

Larry Gelbart, the writer whose caustic wit was a creative force behind the enduring success of the television series "M*A*S*H," Broadway hits like "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and film comedies like "Tootsie," died Friday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Larry Gelbart, who created the classic TV adaptation of Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" and whose talented comedy writing stretched from the days of radio to the big screen and cutting-edge cable shows, died of cancer at his Beverly Hills home on Friday.

ZERO MOSTEL WAS hailed as the greatest performer on the American stage, but his star has receded since his 1977 death.

On September 8, 1977, the Brooklyn-born comedic actor Zero Mostel died at the age of 62.

Here we are, back at Madame Tussauds's School of Drama. You may recall some of the other recent exhibitions: Valerie Harper at Arena Stage as Tallulah Bankhead ('Looped'), Emily Skinner at Signature Theatre in the guise of Mae West ('Dirty Blonde').

The fascination with celebrity impersonation goes on and on. And actors, being actors, seem to love nothing more than slipping into the skins of other actors. So now, the writer-performer Jim Brochu is moving among us, as the embodiment of the great Broadway clown Zero Mostel, in a polished if predictable solo show at Theater J.

It is no wonder Zero Mostel was a substantial man. No mere ectomorph could contain such a mass of contradictions.

" Peterborough comedian Sean Cullen will be stepping in play the role of Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, it was announced yesterday.

Rochesterians who love classic theater are blessed each summer with the presence of two world-class repertory companies within easy striking distance, in nearby Canada.

Think there's no way to take a fresh look at "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"? Think again.