APA Players Romp in Sondheim’s “Forum”

A number of funny things have happened on the way to forums in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach over the past two seasons, but just in case you missed them, Huntington Beach’s Academy for the Performing Arts is offering a new look at an old favorite.

An early career success for composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim — the first show in which he plied both trades — “Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” is a tribute of sorts to the Roman playwright Plautus, who created the slapstick comedy some two millennia ago.

Modern comedy scripters Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove applied the joy juice for the current (1962) version.

At the Huntington Beach “Historic” Theater — which is what the APA has taken to call the vintage Huntington Beach High School auditorium — director Tim Nelson and choreographer Diane Makas had more talented and enthusiastic students than they had roles to fill, so several of the parts in “Forum” are double-cast. All are done with fervent comic enthusiasm.

The key role of Pseudolus, the crafty slave who plots to obtain his freedom, is traditionally associated with rotund comic actors such as its creator, Zero Mostel.

Here, a more “normal” looking young man, Neil Starkenberg, takes the part and runs with it, placing more emphasis on cunning and guile than physical comic prowess. Somehow, it works just about as well.

His partner and foil, “slave in chief” Hysterium, is written as a show stealer, and in the hands of Brian Wessels, it’s all that and more.

Wessels is screamingly funny in his outrageous muggings, and no matter how many times you’ve seen the scene, you’d better hold your sides when he dolls up in drag as the “dead bride.”

The would-be lovers are nicely enacted by a tall, gangly Alex Des Combes and (at Sunday’s performance) a sweet, velvet-voiced Kelsey Richardson. Jared Marino gets a number of cutting digs off as the young man’s father, while Carie Millard deftly enacts Marino’s domineering wife (even though she could pass for the virgin Philia in this student production). Future audiences may see Brittany Buchanan as Philia and Rachel Echeverria as Domina.

Rounding out the Roman neighborhood are the dwellings of the town procurer (Nick Miranda) and the befuddled old man (Jake Wells), whose children were stolen in infancy by pirates, and both are solidly enacted. But the show stopper, as written, is the swaggering warrior Miles Gloriosus, and Alex Syiek plays this role to the hilt, not so much with physical dominance as vocal supremacy.

The comely comic courtesans are all double-cast, including a new one (Aqua Salina) the APA has added for the occasion, and who’s shared by Tatianna Beaman and Samantha Burbridge.

Other alluring lovelies are Tintinabula (Allison Ross and Sarah Sack), Panacea (Ema Degerstedt and Arroya Karian), the Geminae (Rukka Suzuki / Samantha Bullat and Natalie Pitt / Torey MacDonald), Vibrata (Brittney Gerardi and Sally Blotzer) and Gymnasia (Aly Lespier and Jeselyn Templin).

Three who do the work of 30 are the ubiquitous Proteans, who also manage to get in three curtain calls. Travis Ammann plays all performances, with Jun Wang, Sean Zia, Kyle Selig, Nick Johnson and Ryan Marks rounding out the trio alternately.

Musical Director Gregg Gilboe and his toga-clad orchestra keep the pace humming splendidly. Courtney Suter’s costumes are appropriately chosen, as is technical director Joe Batte’s setting.

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” is one of those shows that you may see a dozen times and still chortle at the same sight gag again and again. The Academy for the Performing Arts gives its audiences plenty to chortle about.