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A funny thing is happening on stage at Whitman CollegeBy JERRY MKGAHAN Of the I !aion BulletinAs oui Bicentennial brouhaha gathers lull steam, we \mencans find ourselves paying homage to everything from the Battle of Bunker Hill to the DodgeRebellion And yet no one ha - said a kind word or devoted the urfaee of a single stamp to the most indigenous and delightful of all native art forms the American musicalcomedyGod bless it. if no one else willA representative specimen of the trueYankee breed currently occupies thestage of the Harper Joy TheatreA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to lh»j Forum may In* set in Home but it »ould never have been invented anywhere ea t rf 42nd Street Like the National Anthem, the musical comedy traces its origin to Mittel Europa andehe operetta But. in the hands ofreviewnative geniuses like George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers, the musical burst the bonds of the Family Strauss within asingle generation.It became the personification of American low comedy and high spirits. Even Hair couldn't completely clog the plumbing.Right now, it appears that StephenSondheim is the logical pretender to the throne once occupied by such Founding Fathers as Gershwin, Rodgers. Cole Porter and Harold Arlen It s a heady challenge and Sondheim may not have been quite up to it at the time he wrote the score and lyrics of “AFunny Thing ',If memory serves correctly, this show was Sondheim's first outing as a melodistalter writing the lyrics to Leonard Bernstein's “West Side Story.Since then Sondheim has built a substantial reputation on scores such asCompany “A Little Night Music andothers.At the time, he was risking comparison with Rodgers and Hart s ‘ The Boys From Syracuse , a musical which trod the same time honored ground as AFunny Thing,From the musical standpoint. Sondheim did not come out a winner His score for the Burt Shevelove Larry Gelbert book is serviceable, rather than brilliant Only the opening flag waver “Comedy Tonight has survived the test of time strictly on show biz pizazz But the show itself probably will last out the century, because it’s a compendium of everything that ever worked on Broadway especially for comedians who adore the burlesquetraditionThe Whitman players give this tried-and true material their usual good run-lor the money Director John Raymond Freimann s production hadn t totally jelled on opening night, but it was closeenough.Kent Brisby. as Pseudolus, isn't quite ready to mop the stage with Zero Mostel at this point in his career But then, who is° Among Whitman s many gifted comic actors, he s the only one who could play this role By the end of the run, he shouldbe terrific.Mark Momberger, as Hysterium, has one of the finest second banana roles in the history of the American theater He’s as good in it as you could possibly want and Whitman is going to miss him when he graduatesAs Hero, the juvenile lead, Mike Alger is handsome enough to stagger the hardiest car hop and he also has much the best voice in the cast He makes “Love, I ‘fear sound a great deal betterthan it really is, ,Philia, his hght-ot love, is played by Cecily Broman in nightly alternation with Cora Bond If Miss Bond is one-half as good as Miss Broman, the part is inexceptional handsParke B Thomas, as Senex, is comedicly right but vocally light tor the part — an objection that can be* lodged against Leslie Maddox, who plays his wife Domina j 4' 'Miss Maddox has an excellent piece of special material in the pseudo torch song “That Dirty Old Man of Mine”, but she can’t be heard beyond the third rowKen Munson, as usual, is pretty terrific as Miles Gloriousus, the Flash Cadillac of the Roman legionsVincent G Theel and Ken Terrell register well in smaller comic partsAs for the assorted cortesans, Irene Suver, Laurel Wilson, Julie Thomassen and/or Cora Bond and Cecily Bromantend to look like middle-class collegegirls having a larkOn the other hand. Paula Jean Boawn and Julie Dodds are more what the script had in mind Miss Boawn is a fairly gifted dancer and Miss Dodd looks to be about t-foot 7 nine tenths of it legs Mary Brazeau as Spastica, a lame duck with delusions of swanhood, is not nearly homely enough for her role Filling in nicely as soldiers, eunuchs and other assorted hangers-on are Bradley Jay Hunt, Joseph Correa and Carla BrinkleyA Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it may he the most enjoyable evening in a theater since the same chefs served up Scapino ’.Try it; you II like it.The show plays tonight through Sunday at 8. skips a week, then continues on May 19, 20 and 22.
Newspaper Details
Walla Walla Union Bulletin
Walla Walla, Washington, US
Fri, May 07, 1976
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
David B.
USA 26 Aug 2022
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