When Zero Mostel balked at taking the role of Pseudolus in 1963, his wife warned, “If you don’t take this part, I’ll stab you in the…” -referring to a body part that usually absorbs damage aplenty from, say, one swift kick.
No word on whether Paul Dwyer needed such coercion to accept the comic challenge of a lifetime, but it’s a good thing for all concerned that there he is, headlining the Country Dinner Playhouse’s landmark production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
Dwyer has appeared in more than 50 CDP productions since 1986, but “Forum” marks his first true leading role since 1998. And plainly, he is having a ball.
So, too, are audiences who are happily welcoming back one of their favorite performers. Dwyer has worked mostly as a producer and director since 2001, yet his comic timing and improv skills remain as sharp as a … well, knife.
His performance also reveals a new sense of ease and nuance, the kind that comes only with maturation and time in a director’s chair. Dwyer’s voice could always carry to I-25, but what’s new here is his ability to show absolute comic confidence without ever succumbing to exaggeration or hyperbole.
But Dwyer is just one of a stacked group of all-stars and stars-on-the-rise who are making “Forum” one of the funniest things to happen on the way to the CDP in its 35-year history. Topping that list is director Christopher Willard, who picks off new challenges like grapes from a vine. Willard recently directed a one-woman anti-apartheid drama, a children’s classic and performed in a comic murder mystery. So directing one of the most precisely timed comic musicals ever? No sweat.
“Forum” is a silly class farce based on a comedy by Plautus, a Roman who, as was the custom, wrote Greek characters. This is the tale of lifelong slave Pseudolus, who is promised freedom by his master’s son Hero if he can arrange for the girl next door to fall in love with him. All manner of mistaken identity, awful puns and silly sexual innuendo ensues.
“Forum” is Sondheim at his most tolerable, thanks mostly to a sidesplitting book by future “M*A*S*H” whiz Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove (“Was One a good year for wine?”). How they got that musical up and running in 1963 is worthy of a stage play of its own.
Mostel and Jack Gilford (Hysterium) were blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee – and their “Forum” director, Jerome Robbins, had named Gilford’s wife! But it was Robbins who persuaded Sondheim to scrap the opening and write the classic “Comedy Tonight,” guaranteeing the musical’s immortality.
By the time CDP gets through this unusual introductory song, the audience is won over. Then comes a cavalcade of brilliant individual performances: Greg Price better than ever as Pseudolus’ droll boss Senex; Carla Kaiser Kotrc as his bulldog of a wife; Bill Berry proving there’s no fool like an old fool in carrying out an extended one-joke cameo; and Heidi Morrow Hahn, Michelle Sergeeff, Natalie Jensen and Zina Mercil as the most gorgeous array of courtesans since Roman times.
Rob Costigan is the aptly named Hysterium, and he’s particularly hysterical posing as a not-so-dead virgin. Thaddeus Valdez is not only blustery fun as the soldier Miles Gloriosus, his voice sounds more in register than ever on the stunning “Bring Me My Bride.” But the most memorable performance may be the more naturally stoic Marcus Waterman making joyous fun of himself as Lycus, dealer of courtesans. “Deadwood’s” Al Swearengen, Lycus is not.
You might think amid all this veteran experience, youngsters Patrick Sawyer and Erica Hursh get left in the dust as the lovers Hero and Philia. But they more than hold their own – they hold the whole piece together.
If there is a compromise it is in a yeoman but sparse two-piece band, which seems more of a regret after recently having seen Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s amazing, seven-person “Wizard of Oz” orchestra. But it’s not a debilitating compromise here: Wendell L. Vaughn and Dean Tellefson are among the best in the business, and downsizing their band is what makes it possible for CDP to cast eight professional union actors among a cast of 16, which no other dinner theater in Colorado can afford to do.
Add Alann Wolrey’s efficient choreography, Rob Westan’s smartly spacious set design, and some fun (if oddly Hawaiian-tinged) Roman costumes, and you have to believe that this is CDP at its most massive, old-fashioned best.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”
****
MUSICAL COMEDY|Country Dinner Playhouse, 6875 S. Clinton St., Greenwood Village|Music by Stephen Sondheim, book by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove|Directed by Christopher Willard|Starring Paul Dwyer, Rob Costigan and Greg Price|THROUGH JULY 3|7:45 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays; 1:45 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays (dinner 90 minutes prior)|2 hours, 35 minutes|$34.95-$39.95|303-799-1410
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“THE FULL MONTY” Tonight, the Cabaret Dinner Theatre becomes the first theater in the nation to open its own production of the hit musical about unemployed steelworkers who drop everything for some cash. Performances 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays (dinner 90 minutes prior) through July 10. $32.50-$36; call 970-254-2809.
“PARALLEL LIVES” Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney (“The Kathy and Mo Show”) penned this popular two-woman sketch comedy billed as “Lucy and Ethel Meet Thelma and Louise.” Stars Pam Clifton and Beth Flynn at The Avenue Theater, 417 E. 17th Ave. 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through July 3. $15-$20 (303-321-5925).
“DANCING GIRL” In a monologue subtitled “An American Woman’s Greek Village Odyssey,” Denver’s Thordis Simonsen takes audiences to a village in southern Greece she discovered in 1982 and eventually became a member of the community. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through May 28 (plus 2 p.m. May 27) at the Cameron Church, 1600 S. Pearl St. $17-$20 (303-321-5403).
-John Moore
