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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Fact Sheet...
Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart

The Musical was inspired by the Ancient
Roman playright, Plautus.

It tells the 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 shows many elements of farce, like the
puns, the slamming doors, cases of mistaken
identity (a lot of the time involving characters
disguising themselves as one another) etc.
The title derives from a line often used by
vaudeville comedians to begin a story: "A
funny thing happened on the way to the
theater".

The musical was on Broadway in 1962 and won several Tony Awards, including Best
Musical. A Funny Thing has had many Broadway and West End revivals and was made into a
successful film starring the original lead of the musical, Zero Mostel.
PLOT:
Set in Rome during the first century A.D. during the early years of the Roman Empire, the film opens
with one of the musicals most famous songs, "Comedy Tonight”