HTC Returns to Musical Theater With 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'

Back with its first musical production in years, the Hampton Theatre Company (HTC) will end its season with “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” a classic, timeless farce filled with puns, slamming doors and mistaken identity.

The show, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, is directed by HTC’s Rosemary Cline and co-produced by Cline and Andrew Botsford. Cline said the board decided to do the musical after the smashing success of “Man Of La Mancha” in 2019, and high demand from audiences for another musical. It will run May 23 to June 9 at Quogue Community Hall.

“I love this musical,” said Cline. “I think it works for a lot of different demographics because it’s just pure entertainment, fun, farce, and good music, funny gags.”

The choice of show is ambitious, in part due to the large cast of 15 actors (the show has the capacity for 19 actors). The musical narrates the tale of a motivated slave named Pseudolus (Nicholas Auletti), who devises a plan to secure his freedom by aiding his young master Hero (Jamie Baio) in courting Philia (Mary Conley), the innocent beauty residing among the courtesans at the neighboring residence of Marcus Lycus (Andrew Botsford). Pseudolus’s endeavors are complicated by a series of mishaps involving a vibrant array of Roman inhabitants, including Hero’s overly protective parents, the enduringly patient Senex (Bob Kaplan) and his domineering wife Domina (Jessica Howard); Hysterium (Tom Ciorciari), the appropriately named chief slave of Senex’s household; Miles Gloriosus (Matthew Conlon), an extravagant Roman soldier vying for Philia’s affections; and the wandering Erronius (George A. Loizides), whose abode offers a temporary albeit less-than-secure refuge for aspiring lovers. Also starring in the show are Esmeralda Cabrera (Tintinabula), Tom Cior, Alissa Dabrowski (Vibratta), Matt Fama (Protean), Melissa Goldberg (Gymnasia), Dara Lifschutz (Panacea/Domina), Thomas Milton (Protean).

Prior to producing “Man Of La Mancha,” HTC had not worked on a fully staged musical for about 36 years. This is in part due to the extra costs of putting on musicals, such as hiring a music director and investing in better sound equipment. However, due to the demand, and the fact most companies in the area — both community and regional theaters — tend to do musicals, Botsford said the goal is to bring a musical to the mix of the company’s standard lineup of plays at least once every few years. Cline was the perfect choice to helm this show, as she has been directing musicals for 14 years at high schools.

Cline chose the show because it was one she always dreamed of doing.

“This is a much-beloved musical,” she said. “Everybody knows it. Different generations know it. Some know it from the Zero Mostel movie, some from the stage show in the city and on Broadway, some from their regional theaters.”

She was further attracted to the “rollicking musical farce” of the show, which is filled with twists such as mistaken identities and plots and plans that go terribly wrong, creating more plots and plans. Of course, with any farce, there is a little bit of chaos, with people running on and off stage and bumping into things. However, the show’s core is a tale of more than one love story.

After Botsford got acquainted with the musical, he was struck by its charm.

“I did not expect the love stories and songs to be so charming and enrapturing,” he said. “The idea was not only to do a musical and serve a real crowd-pleaser, but also the idea was, let’s go bigger or go home. Let’s see what we can do on a small stage.”

The challenge in making the show a reality for HTC is that the production requires a large number of male actors who are in short supply on the East End, especially for musicals. Also needed was a top-notch musician, a choreographer and a sound engineer. Cline found the skills she needed in pianist and music director Dee Laveglia, choreographer Nora Moutrane and sound designer Jonathan Presto. With the talent from the company, Cline felt the production could be successful, especially after auditions were held. The response was overwhelming, which Cline credits to General Manager Terry Brennan’s outreach efforts.

“As many as we hired, we turned away just as many,” said Cline, adding that she hopes the audience will enjoy seeing the variety of both new faces and familiar ones on the stage.

While casting, she wanted to also make sure Laveglia was comfortable with her choices. Each actor also needed to be well versed in acting, song and dance, an additional layer of complexity to consider when casting a musical.

“Different roles all have differing levels of ability, different kinds of singing,” she said. “So that weeds out people, because sometimes you have lovely singers or others who act and dance, which means of the three elements, they have one really strong strength, and what I looked for was a combination.”

Cline’s casting choices ultimately came down to gut feeling for chemistry, she said, and she and Laveglia were on the same wavelength when it came to those key casting choices. For example, Cline was initially going to cast a different actor in a major role, but when the actress who eventually got the part came to read, she loved her presence, took one look at Laveglia as the actress performed, and realized they had met their match.

The musical is constantly moving, said Cline, which is a challenge because the cast is large, the set is large, but the stage is small. She has managed to design a set that can accommodate what’s necessary, which is three whole houses, each two stories high. Cline came up with the idea of having Laveglia visible on stage and able to make the sounds of an entire orchestra on one keyboard.

Ultimately, Cline hopes the audience walks away from the show entertained by the classic musical.

“It really is about entertainment, love, happiness and just getting swept away in a whole story,” she said. “And feeling when you come out of it like ‘oh, my gosh, that was so fun.’ That’s really what I would like.”

Performances of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” run Thursday, May 23, through Sunday, June 9. Shows are Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. An additional matinee will be offered on Saturday, June 8, at 2:30 p.m., prior to the regular 8 p.m. performance. Two talkbacks with the cast will be offered following the May 31 and June 7 Friday evening performances. Set design is by Ricky Bottenus; lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski; sound design by Jonathan Presto; and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.

Tickets are $48 ($43 seniors, $27 students) at hamptontheatre.org or 631-653-8955. Quogue Community Hall is at 125 Jessup Avenue in Quogue.