A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
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Whittier Daily News
Community theater treads new path
Whittier group handles musical 'Into the Woods' like professionals
September 11, 2000
By Frances Baum Nicholson
Correspondent
The formula for a successful community theater in today's climate is deceptively simple. You must find solid scripts, collect significant talent from that huge pool
of amateur performers out there, use your creative resources wisely when it comes to sets and costumes and radiate an enthusiasm for the process which keeps
a sizable unpaid crew happy. It's a huge order, and many a group has fallen by the wayside trying to do it all at once. After some missteps last season, Whittier
Community Theatre has shown itself capable of all of the above and is starting their 79th season with a bona fide hit.
Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods" seems unlikely material for such a company, yet it has proved to be a brilliant choice. Not only did it bring in a huge host
of performers to auditions, allowing for a truly talented cast, but it has attracted many new people to see the production, giving the company a much-needed
boost to its audience base.
The musical looks at the traditional Grimm fairy tales and how a truly human element can make their outcomes far less predictable than the stories we
remembered as children. In the end, all one can know is that "someone is on your side, someone else is not," and regardless of how lost we feel, "you are not
alone, for no one is alone."
The show is a performer's dream, as there are so many great moments handed to individuals within a large and diverse cast.
Here WCT does not disappoint.
Standouts among this talented group include Abby Feldman as a gentle, occasionally wistful Cinderella, Lindsay Martin as a logical, innocent Little Red Riding
Hood, Nicole Santina (in the show's one original tale) as a baker's wife yearning for a child and Robin La Valley as the frustratedly funny mother of the
beanstalk-climbing Jack.
Also terrific to watch are Eric Cajiuat, who creates a most-complex version of the baker, Dashaun Young making very charming and talented
work of the rather dim Jack and particularly Steve Kirwan and Alex Hunter as the two vapid Prince Charmings.
Yet, in truth, the star is the production itself. Under the direction of Michael Eiden, and performed on a set designed by Eiden and Scott Hunter, the show is
colorful and active and, once the cast settles down a bit, quite tuneful. Costumes are the best seen in quite a while at WCT, and the small band, under Brian
Murphy's direction, handles the complex music without becoming a distraction. "Into the Woods" is a fine example of what community theaters are capable of
when they put their minds to it.
Charming, tuneful, challenging and creative, the show displays a host of young talents to great advantage and guarantees a good time to all. There are some
mildly adult situations in this show that may cause younger children to ask some uncomfortable questions, and the fairy tales are straight from the Brothers
Grimm, bloody bits and all. Yet this is a remarkable way for a very venerable company to kick start a new chapter in its history.
Orange County Register
An only spottily funny 'Forum'
Westminster Community Theatre is stronger musically than in realizing the spontaneous comedic potential of the hit 1960s show.
March 24, 2002
By ERIC MARCHESE
Special to the Register
When "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" premiered on Broadway, it was a fairly novel concept - a meshing together of noisy, coarse
burlesque house antics with a story line loosely based on the writings of the Roman Plautus and held together with a raft of original songs.
Larry Gelbart (later of TV's "M*A*S*H" fame) and Burt Shevelove wrote the libretto for the 1962 musical comedy, and for the first time in his career
Stephen Sondheim composed the entire score, both lyrics and music. The show's songs range from bawdy to lyrical, with Sondheim's gift for unusual
harmonies, but it's his lyrics that make the music work. They fit the tongue-in-cheek mood of the show, mirroring Shevelove and Gelbart's dialogue.
Given such open-ended material, most theater troupes have the perfect launching pad for a wild-and- crazy evening. Westminster Community Theatre's
staging
often has the feeling of an improv comedy troupe or the kind of guys who wander a Renaissance Faire throwing together humorous bits. While the material's
tone is still fairly blue, it's been toned down quite a bit- the theater's attempt at keeping the show suitable for families.
Broader, though, isn't necessarily funnier. Director Mark Torreso sprinkles the production with some genuinely inventive bits of business, beginning with the
work of the Proteans. These three multitalented performers, we are told, do the work of 30. Here, they entertain the audience with their pre-show
shenanigans - everything from pitting a Roman armed with a sword against a whiny lion (and later, a tiger, also armed) to running around on stilts that look like
real legs, creating a bizarre visual effect.
There's little these actors - David Herbelin, Jerry Michnal II and Justin Walvoord - do during the show that's ever as inventive or creative, though, which
addresses the basic problem of this staging. When the actors interact with the audience, a good tactic for such a small house, we're rewarded with some
genuinely funny off-the-cuff moments. Torreso's cast has few truly gifted comic actors, so most of the laughs grow out of the script, which strings one verbal
or visual gag after another.
From a musical standpoint, Westminster's show has more to brag about. The cast's song and dance skills are unimpeachable, with assured musical direction
from Terry
Alaric and creative choreography from Kerri Hellyer. What's more, Alaric and his pianist, Randy Woltz, have a field day with Sondheim's wonderful score,
synthesizing everything from piano, bass and drums to flutes, horns and strings in their novel pre-recorded score.
The pleasant if less-than- distinctive cast begins with Eric Cajiuat as Pseudolus. Though less manic than the beloved Zero
Mostel portrayal, Cajiuat's reading is pleasingly unforced, he exhibits solid comic timing and throws off some terrific
ad-libs, and is a darned good singer to boot.
Justin Bowler and Tiffany Berg hit just the right mark as Hero and Philia, the show's comical would-be lovers. Bowler's earnest youth is simply the typical,
lovestruck teen, and one of the funniest things in the show. His scenes with Berg would be even funnier if she played Philia, the gorgeous airhead, as even
more mentally blank. She's vapid enough, though, and the couple's signature number, "Lovely," offers good laughs, especially with Bowler's comic-spastic
vocal style.
Stan Morrow's Hysterium starts out as a snotty killjoy prone to groveling, then switches to a cowardly, nervous dope as he gets sucked into fellow slave
Pseudolus' schemes to earn his freedom. As Hero's parents, Karl Jaecke injects a bit of Mr. Howell into his henpecked Senex, while Karen Jacobsen's
Domina is pushy if not especially domineering.
Drew Johnson's Erronius is the textbook doddering old fool.
Christopher Hull's Lycus, the procurer of rare and exotic women, is stately, bemused and rather calm considering he's normally portrayed as a first-class
sleazeball.
Mark Swangel's Miles Gloriosus, the Roman captain who has purchased Philia as his wife, is merely a strong, strapping warrior. The preening narcissim that
pushes the character into parody is absent.
Lycus' courtesans are well portrayed by Hellyer, Mira Aynes, Jasmine Curry, Katie Krieder and Melissa Stewart, with Xena-like Hellyer tossing off this
classic line to a eunuch: "Don't you lower your voice to me!"
This is certainly a well-appointed "... Forum." Torreso's set design for the three adjacent homes - Lycus', Senex's and Erronius' - uses pastel colors to project
a quaint, storybook simplicity. Jacobson, Sandi Newcomb and the rest of the cast and crew have combined on the costumes and props, delivering a uniform
look that's colorful and, true to the material, in a playful spirit.