Signature’s ‘Forum’ is an Uproarious Roman Holiday

metroweekly.com:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Donald Trump won re-election, which, actually, was not that funny. So, the day after Election Day, heading to Signature Theatre to see Matthew Gardiner’s new production of Forum, I didn’t know what I would do with the zany hijinks of ancient Roman slaves and courtesans.Likely, I wouldn’t be the only person in the building having feelings about the election results.

Somebody somewhere must have been brimming with glee that their guy(s) won, but many more in the audience probably really needed “Comedy Tonight,” whether or not they thought they were in the mood.The company, many of whom might also have been in their feelings, had an unusually heavy lift that evening, and I report with pleasure that everyone rose to the occasion.Judging by pointed gestures peppered throughout — like the extra punch that Erin Weaver, playing Pseudolus, gives to a joke about voting twice — the players are on the same page with their audience.

And Gardiner has them all on the same page with each other, as the cast uniformly throws themselves into Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics, and Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart’s Tony-winning book, with a verve that verges on heroic.It takes a lotta verve to put across these bawdy, fast-paced musical shenanigans, spearheaded by Pseudolus, a cunning slave in the house of Roman senator Senex (Christopher Bloch) and wife Domina (Tracy Lynn Olivera).