A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; presenter, Reprise Theatre Company; opens March 17; plays Tues.-Fri., 8 pm; Sat., 2 & 8 pm; Sun., 2 & 7 pm; until March 28. Tickets: $70-$75. Student/senior rush $20 (5 minutes before showtime). Freud Playhouse, Macgowan Hall, UCLA, Westwood; 310.825.2101 or reprise.org.

Wilkof as Pseudolous

Some story lines never change. In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (hereafter Forum), a slave named Pseudolous (Lee Wilkof) tries to win his freedom by helping his much younger master win the heart of the girl next door, Philia (Annie Abrams). Wilkof says, a week ago, he wanted to win his own freedom. “It was such a tough rehearsal. I was not enjoying it. I got in the car, called my wife and told her I’m driving back to New York. She told me, ‘Lee, you have a rental car. They’ll arrest you.’ So I stayed.”

Wilkof’s frustration, while palpable, is also understandable. The Reprise cast has only two weeks to stage the show at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. “I wish we had three,” Wilkof bemoans. “But it’s the trend. Broadway used to be five or six weeks, now it’s down to about four. Theatres have to save money so it’s up to actors to be more prepared and adaptable.”

But in doing so, he says, the demands nearly outpace the returns. “Reprise may not want to hear this but this is my swan song. I’m not going to be a lead in a musical ever again with only two weeks’ rehearsal. I was so stressed I went to see A Prophet to unwind.”

The show is particularly demanding of Wilkof. He’s on stage for all but 10 minutes of Forum. “Wicked was so much easier,” he recalls. “I was on stage for only 20 minutes. Thank God for David Lee. He’s handled our rehearsals so well.”

Lee directs Forum. “Someone recently asked me what musical I have been dying to direct,” Lee says. “I replied, ‘The one with a workshop, a two month rehearsal period and three weeks of previews.’” Really, he adds, “How much shorter can it get?!” The trick, he says, is organization. “You have to have two, sometimes three things being rehearsed at once - music in one room, scenes in another, dance in a third. Working that out ahead of time is a puzzle and usually a boring and difficult one but the result is an appreciative cast and a less stressful environment.”

The Forum cast is comprised of several Broadway and off-Broadway veterans, including Ruth Williamson as Domina, a manipulative lady who blames her husband, Senex (Ron Orbach), for being just “a little distant these past 29 years.”

Ruth Williamson (Domina) and Ron Orbach (Senex)

“Domina,” Williamson says, “is the butt of jokes, the iron fist at home who reminds me of Eulalie Shinn in The Music Man or Mrs. Grubman [whom Williamson plays] on FX’s Nip/Tuck. Not a dear lady.” Williamson received an Outer Critics Nomination for The Music Man, a show that had a more liberal rehearsal period.

How does two weeks sit with her? “I couldn’t have done this without first working with associate music director Sam Kriger several weeks ago. Sondheim’s music can be very difficult.” This is a show, Williamson says, she’s always wanted to do. “I auditioned for the revival with Nathan Lane but didn’t get it. That was okay, really, because I went on to do The Green Heart instead and got a Drama Desk nomination for it. So, now? I’m thrilled to be here, even with such a short turn-around time.”

Alan Mandell as Erronius

A few cast members, Larry Raben (Hysterium) for example, have performed in other productions of Forum, giving them a leg up. Others, like stage vet Alan Mandell (Erronius), haven’t come close, despite a half-century in the business. “This is my first musical. Ever.” Mandell founded the San Francisco Actors Workshop in 1954, then moved to New York where he served as general manager of Lincoln Center, and acted. “I was honored to work with Samuel Beckett in three plays and with Harold Pinter in the American premiere of The Birthday Party.” Why did Mandell find the bawdy musical Forum so attractive? “I love musicals and I wanted to sing and dance. I’ve studied tap but don’t get to use it here. I don’t think David would let me.”

As Hysterium, the chief slave in the house of Senex, Raben is glad to revisit the role. “I did it about five years ago,” he says, “and finally figured it out at the end of the run. Hysterium’s not as bright as I thought; I clearly gave him too much credit.”

Larry Raben as Hysterium

Raben adds, “This is one of the most brilliant book musicals I’ve ever seen, second only to The Producers.” He played Leo Bloom on Broadway and in the entire Las Vegas run. “It’s got the rhythm, the old vaudeville jokes.” Or, as Williamson describes it, “This is old fashioned burlesque, all the way down to girls with shaking boobs.” Raben adds, “They try to pass me off as a eunuch but I’m really tri-sexual. I’ll try anything I can get my hands on.”

Cast members boast that Forum is hilarious, extremely well-written and fully engaging. The music, too, is a delicious complement, says Ron Orbach. “You put together Larry Gelbart’s writing and Stephen Sondheim’s score, even this early in Sondheim’s career, before he evolved into the artist we now revere, with the wit, the lyrics, the incredible virtuosity of the book, and I’d place it in the top, oh, five or so.” What’s above it? “Well, there’s that little work called West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, which are extraordinary. But Forum definitely has delirious lunacy in every moment. It never lets up.”

The mention of Fiddler on the Roof takes Orbach on a tangent. “I hope to play Tevye again and again and again,” a role he undertook in the 2006 production at the California Musical Theatre. It’s a desire Wilkof shares. “If anyone’s doing Fiddler, please mention my name and Tevye in the same breath. It’s the first musical I saw in Cleveland, Ohio, and it left an impression. It’s really the story of my own grandfather,” he says, “and of my family’s life in Eastern Europe. It’s very close to me spiritually.”

Michael Kostroff as Marcus Lycus

Whether you agree that Forum is at or near the pinnacle of musical theatre, many in the cast claim a close affinity for the genre itself. In Michael Kostroff’s (Marcus Lycus) case, the comedic skills he displays inside the music stem from the fact that “Comedy is easy for me.” He notes, “Funny people are often miserable people who had terrible childhoods. Think about it! All good comedians are like that!”

To make his point of loving musical theatre, Kostroff points to his schedule a few years ago. Before he took on the role in three separate productions, Kostroff says, “I was understudying Max Bialystock in The Producers, playing twelve roles in the ensemble, and flying to Baltimore on my day off to shoot The Wire. Such distinctly different roles, such different approaches. Television picks up everything so I followed the ‘think and mumble’ approach on The Wire. You beckon people in. But on stage, it’s all about pushing energy out to the audience. I love that.” He remembers a valuable lesson from acting teacher Doug Moston: “Don’t out-think comedy. You’ll lose.”

Along with Raben and Stuart Ambrose (Miles Gloriosus), Kostroff is a member of the Musical Theatre Guild. “We do one-night readings of lesser known musicals,” Kostroff says. “We’re doing Irma La Douce on April 19 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. It’s a chance to get people more familiar with works you just don’t see performed very often.”

Matt Davis is one of three Proteans (singers, dancers, citizens, slaves) who shares an intense love of musical theatre. “I’m a musician,” he says. “Pianist, accordionist and I play the glockenspiel. That comes in handy at Upright Citizens Brigade.” The theatre on Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles hosts short - really short - five or ten minute musicals. Davis says, “I wrote and performed in one the other day. And that was on top of our eight hour rehearsals for Forum.” Davis previously appeared with Reprise in Sunday in the Park with George, directed by Jason Alexander.

Annie Abrams (Philia) and Erich Bergen (Hero)

Theatre’s a small world. Asked about the audition process, Erich Bergen (Hero) laughs. “I’d done Jersey Boys for three years,” he says. “One day I get a text message from Steve Orich, who won a Grammy for it. Would I audition for Forum?” Bergen had come to Los Angeles for TV’s pilot season anyway. “So, I thought, sure, why not. But when I got to the audition, I felt all this anxiety about my voice. In Jersey Boys, I could sit behind a piano and let loose a ’60s pop song. But with Sondheim, the mood can change every few words. I told the casting director I had 10 friends who could do this role better than I could - here are their names and numbers!

“I should have been a casting director, myself.” David Lee acknowledges a couple of the actors were offered their parts months ago. The remainder, he says, were found through an extensive casting process over several months. He needed actors who could tether their skill to reality. Otherwise, Lee says, “The show can become an exhausting two hours of empty silliness. Actors who understand that are not as easy to find as one might hope.”

Meg Gillentine appears as Tintinabula, a courtesan, or a paid mistress. “I don’t care what I am,” she says. “I’m just so glad to get out of the house. After doing Lola in Damn Yankees, I took two years off to have a baby.” As we spoke by phone, her one-year old son, Cooper, was establishing his nascent tenor in the backseat. “When Jason announced the season, I wrote and asked him if there was anything in this show for me. And, really? I don’t mind dancing in a house where women are sold. It’s just a thrill to be back on stage.”

The object of Hero’s affection, Philia, is played by Annie Abrams. “I woke up this morning,” she recalls without any obvious struggle, “realizing that my last three roles have basically been dumb blondes. Not to be stereotypical or anything but Philia’s not the sharpest tool in the tool chest.” Asked if she’d rather play Domina, Abrams laughs. “I’d love to! What a departure that would be! I may have to change my voice, though.” The blonde hair and innocent blue eyes might have to go, too.

Annie Abrams (Philia) Erich Bergen (Hero) Meg Gillentine (Tintinabula) Michael Kostroff (Marcus Lycus) Alan Mandell (Erronius) Lee Wilkof (Pseudolus) Larry Raben (Hysterium) Ruth Williamson (Domina) Ron Orbach (Senex) and Matthew Patrick Davis (Protean)

When Forum opens on Wednesday, March 17, it will have in it “Farewell,” a song Sondheim wrote for Nancy Walker in the 1972 Broadway revival with Phil Silvers. Additionally, David Lee says, “‘The Echo Song’ will replace ‘That’ll Show Him,’ so it’s a chance to hear a couple of great Sondheim songs that are rarely performed.” And current references are omitted. “I chose to go with Gelbart, who wrote assiduously about wanting to avoid it, and forego references to Tiger Woods’ putter, no matter how hilarious.”

And once it closes on March 28, Wilcof can safely head home to New York without fear of being arrested. “I’m looking forward to that,” he says. “My wife and I are giving up our apartment and moving on May 1 to a little house we bought in Connecticut. But, remember everyone, keep me in mind for Tevye.”

Feature image of Wilcof and all photos by John Ganun.