REVIEW : Play’s Funny Things Still Happen : Strong performances help the jokes pass the test of time in a revival of Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart’s comedy ‘Forum.’

There’s one thing about old jokes --you know that they’ve held up with time. Such seemed to have been the thinking behind “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” the 1962 Broadway comedy that filters ideas from at least as far back as the ancient Roman playwright Plautus through American vaudeville and burlesque. And it continues to hold up, quite well, in a fast-paced and consistently amusing production by the Camarillo Community Theater under the direction of Linda Stiegler.

Writers Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart started in radio and television, where they’d worked with comics who themselves drew from the vaudeville tradition. “Forum” also marked the Broadway debut of Stephen Sondheim as a composer as well as lyricist; he previously supplied lyrics only to “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.”

It’s a fairly inauspicious debut, with only “Comedy Tonight” emerging as anything resembling a hit; it’s the libretto, not the songs, that won the show’s Tony award for writing (others went to the actors, producer and director; the show did win for “Best Musical” if not as best music). Wily slave Pseudolus is attempting to win his freedom. “Done!” Hero says, if Pseudolus will arrange for him to meet the object of his young lust, Philia, the beautiful and (so far) virgin courtesan who lives next door.

There are obstacles: Lycus, the town procurer, has already promised Philia to warrior Miles Gloriosus; Hero’s father, Senex, develops his own craving for Philia (keeping it hidden, of course, from Domina, his dominating wife), and Hysterium, the slave who runs Senex and Domina’s household, is trying without much luck to keep Pseudolus in line.

This all sorts itself out amid much mischief and banter, mistaken identity and slamming doors and windows. There’s a fair amount of sexual stuff going on, but nothing so specific as to offend most audiences: This is a show that adults can enjoy while bringing the not-very-young children--if, that is, you can figure out how to explain what a “courtesan” does for a living.

Jim Barker all but dominates the show as Pseudolus, the role created on Broadway and film by Zero Mostel. Mitchell Neill and Kimberlee Neill, relative newlyweds in real life, play the attractive and sincere--if none too bright--young lovers Hero and Philia with perhaps special ardor.

Matt Reithmayr and Chad Reisser are fine as slave-in-chief Hysterium and Miles Gloriosus; Lloyd Allen is an expert Senex, properly frightened by Linda Foster as Domina. James Wortman would be amusing as Marcus Lycus even were it not for the very un-Roman wig that would be more suitable on Fagin in “Oliver!”

Holly Holst, Debbie Probe, Liana Allday and Deven McNair appear as Philia’s bordello-mates; Eric Adams plays Lycus’ eunuch (something else to explain to the kids), and Mel Adams, Ron Rogers and Jerry Javan Baldonado appear as the “proteans,” sort of utility infielders who assume a number of onstage duties.

Four choreographers--Baldonado, Probe, Stiegler and Kevin Calvin--are credited, and musical director Charles Padilla leads the enthusiastic eight-piece pit band.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” continues through July 24 at the Camarillo Airport Theater, 330 Skyway Drive, on the Camarillo Airport grounds. Performances are Thursday through Sunday evenings at 8, with a 2 p.m. matinee July 11 only. The show on July 17 will be at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $11, or $9 for students, seniors and military except Thursdays, when all seats are $8. Group rates and special performances dates are available. For reservations or further information, call the theater box office at 388-5716.