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March 8, 2004 MEDIA CONTACTS: Comedy Tonight! HOUSTON, TX - The Alley Theatre Resident Company of Actors tackles its first major musical with a new production of Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum this May. With its unforgettable zany characters, clever songs of Stephen Sondheim, and a perfectly constructed book by Larry Gelbart (of MASH and Tootsie fame) and Burt Shevelove, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumis the perfect piece for the diverse talents of the Alley's Resident Company. Directed by Artistic Director Gregory Boyd, this masterful production-featuring outrageous costumes by Constance Hoffman and a spectacular set by Vince Mountain-takes over the Alley's Hubbard Stage with preview performances starting Friday, May 14. The production opens Wednesday, May 19 and runs through Sunday, June 6, 2004. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts, Enbridge Energy Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers, with additional support from Stanford Financial Group, the Alley Theatre's 2003-2004 Season Sponsor. Broadway's greatest farce is light, fast-paced, and irreverent and frequently referred to as one of the funniest musicals ever written. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum takes comedy back to its roots, combining situations from the time-tested, 2000-year-old comedies of Roman playwright Plautus, with the infectious energy of classic vaudeville. This non-stop laugh-fest follows the story of the crafty slave Pseudolus who struggles to win the hand of a beautiful courtesan for his young master Hero, all in the hopes of earning his freedom. This delightful musical features Alley Theatre Resident Company Actors Jeffrey Bean as Hysterium, James Belcher as Erronius, James Black as Marcus Lycus, Elizabeth Heflin as Philia, Paul Hope as Miles Gloriosus, Charles Krohn as Senex, John Tyson as Pseudolus and Todd Waite as Hero. Making their debuts at the Alley Theatre for this production are Cora Campbell as Tintinabula, Mary Sharon Komarek and Patricia Salvo as the Geminae, Eric Brandon Mota as a Protean, Melissa H. Pritchett as Panacea, Laura Scott as Gymnasia and Brooke E. Wilson as Vibrata. Returning to the Alley for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum are Philip Lehl (Our Lady of 121st Street, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet) and Ezequiel Guerra, Jr. (Our Lady of 121st Street) as Proteans and Jennie Welch (Alley's The Lucky Spot, Shooting Stars, and Kiss Me Kate) as Domina. The production design team includes scenic designer Vince Mountain (Alley's recent Sherlock Holmes), costume designer Constance Hoffman (Alley's Hamlet), lighting designer John Ambrosone (Alley's Life x 3) and sound designer Ray Nardelli, who designs for the first time at the Alley. Rounding out the artistic team are choreographer Michael Tapley (current Associate Artistic Director for Theatre Under the Stars) and musical director Bill Bartlett (Alley's Billy Bishop Goes to War). COMPOSER AND AUTHOR BIOS Stephen Sondheim was born in New York in 1930 to upper-class parents. His father was a successful dress manufacturer, and his mother, the firm's designer. Stephen was sent to military school where he reveled in the confining order and rules (according to Craig Zadan in his definitive study Sondheim & Co.) Among his mother's acquaintances was the Oscar Hammerstein family. Hammerstein was at the time working on a musical comedy for Broadway called Oklahoma!, and under his influence, the adolescent Sondheim became fascinated with musical theatre. At the age of 15, Sondheim showed Hammerstein a musical he had written and was told, "It is the worst thing I've ever read." Then Hammerstein proceeded to show him why. "In that afternoon," recalls Sondheim, "I learned more about songwriting and the musical theatre than most people learn in a lifetime. I was getting the distillation of 30 years of experience." Fascinated with English and Mathematics, Sondheim entered Williams College in Massachusetts, but soon became a music major. "The music teacher, Robert Barrow, was so sensational that if he had taught Geology, I would probably have become a geologist." He graduated in 1950, winning the Hutchinson Prize for Musical Composition, which allowed him to study theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. His ascent on Broadway began in triumph with his lyrics for West Side Story in 1957 (music by Leonard Bernstein), Gypsy (music by Jule Styne), and Do I Hear a Waltz? (music by Richard Rodgers). The first Broadway production for which he wrote both music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) which won the Tony Award as Best Musical. He has won Tony Awards as Best Composer and Lyricist for Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. All of these musicals also won the New York Drama Critic's Circle Award, as did his Pacific Overtures. His other work for the musical theatre includes The Frogs (currently being revived on Broadway), Sunday in the Park with George (Pulitzer Prize and Critics Circle Award), Merrily We Roll Along and Into the Woods (Tony Award, Best Score; Drama Desk Award, Best Musical; Critics Circle Award, Best Musical), Assassins (currently on Broadway) and Bounce. Side by Side by Sondheim, Marry Me a Little, You're Gonna Love Tomorrow and Putting It Together are anthologies of his work. He has composed film scores for Stavisky (1974) and Reds (1981), wrote additional lyrics for the revival of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, and co-authored the film The Last of Sheila with Anthony Perkins. He is on the council of the Dramatist's Guild, the national association of playwrights, composers and lyricists and is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors (1993). Sondheim is forever trying to re-invent the musical play and has employed a
vast range of styles and some very unlikely sources: Plautus (A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), a film by Ingmar Bergman (A
Little Night Music), Grand Guignol (Sweeney Todd), Japanese Kabuki
theatre forms (Pacific Overtures), Impressionist painting (Sunday
in the Park with George) and fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm (Into
the Woods). As critic Jeffrey Lonoff has written, "Once an unknown,
then a newcomer, he grew to cult figure, to star, to legend. Now he is even
more. He's an adjective. Other works are often described as being 'Sondheimesque'
or not. His work is the barometer against which everything else is measured." Burt Shevelove made an auspicious Broadway debut in 1948 as the director, co-author and co-producer of the successful revue Small Wonder. He won the Tony Award (with Larry Gelbart) for the book of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and directed the award-winning productions of Hallelujah, Baby! (1968), No, No, Nanette (1971) and the 1972 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Phil Silvers. For the screen, he co-authored with Larry Gelbart and co-produced The Wrong Box (1966). He contributed prodigiously to television, producing, directing and writing hundreds of shows starring, among others, Jack Benny, Art Carney, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand and winning many awards, including the Emmy and Peabody. Shevelove's last Broadway show was the musical Happy New Year, which he adapted from Philip Barry's play Holiday, and also directed. At the time of his death in 1982, he was preparing a musical version of The Front Page.
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The Alley Theatre is funded in part by the City of Houston and the Texas Commission on the Arts through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County.
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