Reprise Theatre Company Opens A FUNNY THING HAPPENED...FORUM, 3/16

Reprise Theatre Company will open A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, 1962's Tony-Award-winning Best Musical, March 16-28 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Directed by David Lee, the production's book is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Single tickets are available for Forum online at www.reprise.org or through the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310-825-2101. 

Tony-Award-nominee Lee Wilkof, who originated the part of Seymour in "Little Shop of Horrors," stars with Larry Raben, one of the original cast of "Forever Plaid." Wilkof has appeared continuously in New York and on Broadway in revivals of "Sweet Charity," "She Loves Me," "Kiss Me, Kate," and "The Odd Couple," and recently spent two seasons as The Wizard in "Wicked." He is also known for his recurring roles on "Law and Order," "Ally McBeal," and "Max Headroom." Larry Raben played Leo Bloom on Broadway and in Las Vegas in Mel Brooks' "The Producers," and also starred off-Broadway and in Los Angeles in "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." The production will also feature Erich Bergen in the role of 'Hero'.

The rest of the cast features Michael Kostroff, Alan Mandell, Ron Orbach and Ruth Williamson. The ensemble of "Forum" features Annie Abrams, Stuart Ambrose, Bradley Benjamin, Matthew Patrick Davis, Meg Gillentine, Tonya Kay, Laura Keller, Mercy Malick, Russ Marchand, Candace Olsen, and Justin Wilco. Director David Lee, one of the area's most important, creative, musical theatre talents, recently directed "Camelot" at the Pasadena Playhouse, in a noteworthy production featuring a company of eight actors. "Forum" features two musical theatre talents new to Reprise. Choreographer Peggy Hickey, who recently staged the dances for "My Fair Lady" starring Kelsey Grammer and Kelli O'Hara for the New York Philharmonic, is regular choreographer for Goodspeed Opera House and Sacramento Music Circus, and Steve Orich, Tony-Award-nominee for Best Orchestrations for the 2006 Tony-Award-winning Best Musical "Jersey Boys," serves as musical director.

Director David Lee is a nine-time Emmy-Award-winning director, writer and producer for television. On stage, he has directed productions of "Light Up the Sky," "Do I Hear A Waltz?," "110 in the Shade," "Diva," "Can-Can" (at Pasadena Playhouse), "How I Fell In Love" (Williamstown Theater Festival), "On The 20th Century," "Assassins," "Company," "A New Brain," "Applause," "Working," "Zorba," "Elegies" (at Reprise!), and staged readings of "The New Hope Memorial" (at the Mark Taper Lab) and "They Knew What They Wanted" (at Roundabout Theatre Company). In 2007, he directed the acclaimed production of "South Pacific" at the Hollywood Bowl with Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell. His writing for the theater includes a concert adaptation of "Can-Can" (Encores! with Patti LuPone) and an entirely new book for "Can-Can," which he directed at the Pasadena Playhouse (Ovation Award-Best Director).

Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," with book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, earned several Tony awards, including best musical and best book in its original 1962 Broadway run.

While the setting and the characters were vaguely Roman, the show really is an homage to American burlesque and a kind of outrageous stage comedy, which has given its various stars some of the funniest and sharpest material to ever be part of a Broadway musical.

The original production, which opened in 1962 at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre), played 964 performances - still the longest Broadway run for a Stephen Sondheim-written musical. The original cast included Zero Mostel (Pseudolus) and Jack Gilford (Hysterium).
Mostel and Michael Crawford (as Hero) appeared in the 1966 film version. In 1974, Phil Silvers headlined and won a Tony for this 156-performance revival. A Broadway revival opened in 1996, for which Nathan Lane won a Tony as Pseudolus. Whoopi Goldberg was among his replacements, necessitating some minor book adjustments to accommodate the gender switch.

Since its inception in 1997, Reprise Theatre Company has been a focus of the Los Angeles musical theatre community, producing productions of great American musicals, and a wide variety off concerts, staged-readings, special events and outreach programs.  In May 2007, Jason Alexander became Artistic Director and he was joined by Susan Dietz, Producing Director.

 

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