Alaina Counts
  • TRMU
  • Class of 2015
  • Arcadia, Ohio

Alaina Counts, of Arcadia, participates in 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'

2014 Mar 26

Alaina Counts, of Arcadia, recently participated as part of the cast or crew in the comedy "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at The University of Findlay. Counts is majoring in TRMU at the University.

Music and lyrics for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" are by Stephen Sondheim. The book is by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, based on the Roman plays of Titus Maccius Plautus. It was originally produced on Broadway by Harold S. Prince.

Micheal F. Anders, Ph.D., was the producer and musical director for the show. Vicki McClurkin was the stage director. Brenda Hoyt-Brackman was the choreographer. Greg Griffin was scenic and lighting designer. Kathy Newell was costumer, and Jessica Leszkowicz was props mistress. Matt Stimmel was technical advisor. Emily Gajewski was stage manager. Jessica Herman and Gary Flowers were assistant managers.

The show is produced through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).

Originally produced in 1962, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" is a hilarious mixture of burlesque and outrageous comedy that starred Zero Mostel as the conniving slave, Pseudolous. It was revived on Broadway in 1971, with Phil Silvers in the lead, and in 1996, starring Nathan Lane. All three of these actors won the "best actor in a musical" Tony Award for the role.

The ploy centers around Pseudolus, a cunning Roman slave that will do anything to win his freedom. The setting is a Roman street on which three houses are next door to each another. One is the house of Pseudolus' masters: the philandering Senex; his domineering wife, Domina; and their handsome but empty-headed son, Hero. The second house is a brothel belonging to a "seller of flesh," Marcus Lycus. The third house has long been empty; the senile Erronius has been gone on a long journey to find his children, who were kidnapped in infancy by pirates. Other principals include Pseudolus' fellow slave, the aptly named Hysterium; a vain warrior, Miles Gloriosus; and the virginal Philia, a resident of Lycus' "domicile" who is loved by Hero but who has been promised in marriage to Miles Gloriosus.