The run closed August 29, 1964
- Opened
- May 8, 1962
- Closed
- August 29, 1964
- Performances
- 964
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Neil Simon Theatre
Of the 603 productions we hold that opened in the 1960s and record a performance count, this is the 20th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum 2 more that season
| 1972 | Lunt Fontanne Theatre Revival · Stephen Sondheim | 156 perf. |
| 1996 | St James Theatre Revival · Jerry Zaks | 715 perf. |
Who was in it33 named
Judy Alexander
Lucienne Bridou
David Evans
Lisa James
Roberta Keith
Gloria Kristy
Myrna White
Lisa Ackerman
Danny Dayton
Patricia Dunn
Barbara London
Frank Mchugh
Denise Mclaglen
Sally Neal
Ronald Ross
Dick Shawn
17 of these 33 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 16 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Characters9 roles recorded
Zero Mostel Prologus/ Pseudolus
Brian Davies Hero
Preshy Marker Philia
Jack Gilford Hysterium
David Burns Senex
Ruth Kobart Domina
John Carradine Marcus Lycus
Ronald Holgate Miles Gloriosus
Raymond Walburn Erronius
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- George Abbott
- Choreographer
- Jack Cole
- Orchestrations
- Irwin Kost
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Tony Awards 6 from 8 nominations
| Best Musical | Won |
Around this production
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (254–184 BC), specifically Curculio, Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus, and Mostellaria, the musical tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door. The plot displays many classic elements of farce, including puns, the slamming of doors, comedy of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as one another), and satirical comments on social class. The title derives from a line…
New York Times critic Howard Taubman gleefully described some of the show’s more ridiculous situations, such as Jack Gilford “in a shimmering white gown and pretending to be a dead, yet agitated, virgin.” Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 159
I laughed twice and thrice and started in all over again, and I now figure that if future seasons are going to be as skimpy and as dull as this one, I may have to have Funny Thing to keep me going every year, doctor's orders.
Speaker not recorded. More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 336- This was the first Broadway show for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 159
- A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum returned to Broadway in 1996 with Nathan Lane as Pseudolus; Whoopi Goldberg took over the lead role during the run. Cambridge Companion To the Musical Cambridge Companions To Music the the Cambrid, p. 432
- Abbott directed the musical farce, the first Broadway show with both music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The Abbott Touch Thomas Hischak 2023 Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 130
- A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM 964 performances Opened May 8, 1962; Closed August 29, 1964 Theatre World 2003 04 Season V 60 Willis, p. 295
- A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (REVIVAL) 715 performances Opened April 18, 1996; Closed January 4, 1998 Theatre World 2003 04 Season V 60 Willis, p. 299
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No recording is held for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at all.
- No show page for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The work is here as a title and a year, and nothing more has been gathered about it.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.