photo by Danielle Boss

Patrick Menning as Pseudolus has some fun with citizens Tony Segura and Matt Attig in the Albert Lea Community Theatre production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The musical comedy opens tonight at the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center.

ACT’s ‘Forum’ offers great distraction from life today

By Geri McShane | Albert Lea Tribune

Published Thursday, April 30, 2009

So things aren’t the greatest right now. The stock market is down. Another big industry announced it was cutting more jobs. There’s this thing called the swine flu.

Albert Lea Community Theatre has an escape from it all – or at least for an evening – with its latest production, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” The show opens tonight at the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center.

Steve Kinney has staged one of the fastest-paced, most entertaining shows in quite some time. This show, written by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, has it all – mistaken identities, people disguising themselves as other characters, many entrances and exits and quick, witty lines. Add in some dances and songs by Stephen Sondheim and the audience has 2 ½ hours of great entertainment.

“A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum” tells the story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master, Hero, woo the girl next door, Philia.

The title comes from the line that vaudeville comedians often used to begin a story: “A funny thing happened on the way to the theater.”

The show features a fabulous set, designed by the director and built by his brother. The show has three houses next to each other. One is owned by Hero’s parents, Senex and Domina. Another is owned by Marcus Lycus, a buyer and seller of beautiful women. The third belongs to Erronius, who is abroad searching for his lost-lost children, who were stolen in infancy by pirates.

Kinney has assembled a fantastic cast. Not only can these people say funny lines, but they can sing and dance, too.

The show features Patrick Menning as Pseudolus, Jim Broberg as Senex, Emily Bartley as Domina, Adam Tulkki as Hero, Larry Pierce as Hysterium, David Dahlquist as Erronius, Gordy Handeland as Miles Gloriosus, Al Blumenshein as Marcus Lycus, McKinzey Christian as Tintinabula, Erin Lowe as Panacea, Jill Jensen and Allyssa Sorenson as the Geminae, Kate Ellertson as Vibrata, Carrie Boyer Olvera as Gymnasia, Ariel Myran as Philia and Matt Attig and Tony Segura as proteans, soldiers, citizens and all other parts in the history of the theater.

What fun it is to see Menning on stage again. He’s got a great singing and theater voice. He’s talented at delivering one-liners and at physical humor. These are the things Pierce is so well known for, too.

Broberg is also very funny as Senex. It’s interesting that he hasn’t done a show in years, and wanted to do one to make sure he still could. Yes, he still can, and very well.

But we’d be remiss not to mention newcomer Tulkki as Hero. He too is very funny and can sing well. And what about Handeland as Miles Gloriosus? The character is so full of himself, and Handeland carries that off with ease. Blumenshein shines as Lycus, proud one moment, cunning and running to save himself the next.

The courtesans (Christian, Lowe, Jensen, Sorenson, Ellertson and Boyer Olvera) are talented group, each with a unique personality and dance. Myran’s not-the-sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer Philia is enjoyable as well. Joyce Matthies has choregraphed not only this group, but the whole show, beautifully.

And while they play many characters, Attig and Segura are lots of fun to watch, too. They have to make plenty of quick entrances and exits and costume changes and never fail to surprise.

By the way, those great Roman costumes are by Barb Lang.

The show may be a little difficult for younger children to understand, with the idea of exotic women being sold and living in this one house, but teens on up will enjoy this fast-moving farce.

So why not get away from what’s going on in the world for a little while? It’s been said time and again, laughter is indeed the best medicine.

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