stereo cover

CD reissue

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – 1962 original Broadway cast

U.S. catalogue no.: Capitol SWAO 1717 (stereo)

Capitol WAO 1717 (mono)

Released as a 12” 33-1/3 rpm Long Playing record

1966 Lp reissue

Cat. no.: Capitol SW 1717

1982 Lp reissue

Cat. no.: Time-Life STL-AM12

Notes

Included in the box set American Musicals: Stephen Sondheim, which also included the original Broadway cast recordings of Company (1970) and A Little Night Music (1973), plus a 48-page booklet with show notes and lyrics

1990 CD reissue

Cat. no.: Bay Cities BCD 3002

1993 CD reissue

Cat. no.: Angel ZDM 7 64770 2

Audio from the original Broadway cast recording may be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcvFO4lyuy_tl_wj4F2sfcBnBMKiQY2kj

stereo Lp

World Record Club - Australian Lp

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – 1963 original London cast

Cat. no.: HMV CSD 1518 (stereo)

HMV CLP 1685 (mono)

Released as a 12” 33-1/3 rpm Long Playing record

1965 Lp reissue

Cat. no.: World Record Club S 7085 (stereo) (Australian issue)

World Record Club 7085 (mono)

Notes

Australian Lp cover included photos of cast members from the 1964 J.C. Williamson Theatres Ltd. Australian production

1980 Lp reissue

Cat. no.: Stet DS 15028

1988 Lp reissue

Cat.no.: First Night Music OCR 3

1993 CD reissue

Cat. no.: Angel 89060

2008 CD reissue

Cat. no.: ArkivMusic EMI Classics 65070

Audio from the original London cast recording may be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mQaVIyM4rYZmygYAdJ-pesF-IiRxKlF88

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – 1966 Film soundtrack

Cat. no.: United Artists UAS-5144 (stereo)

United Artists UAL 4144 (mono)

Released as a 12” 33-1/3 rpm Long Playing record

1998 CD reissue

Cat. no.: Rykodisc RCD 10727

2012 CD reissue

Cat. no.: Quartet Records SCE051 (Spain)

Notes

Premiere release of Ken Thorne’s complete underscore. Remastered from the original stereo ½” album masters from the MGM vaults and a ¼” tape from the private library of Mr. Thorne. Includes a deluxe full-color 24-page booklet with liner notes and track-by-track analysis by Randall D. Larson. Limited to 1000 copies.

Audio from the 1966 film soundtrack may be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gctUqyKa0TI

Audio of the soundtrack suite adapted, composed and conducted by Ken Thorne may be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HURWcqECqk

1996 Broadway revival cast

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – 1996 Broadway revival cast

Cat. no.: Angel 52223 (CD & cassette)

Audio from the 1996 Broadway revival cast recording may be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBY5YhGUJ8qx19dLgj3tlDW49PwHQD0wx

Filmography

film poster

Spanish film poster - "Golfus of Rome"

The motion picture rights to the musical were purchased by United Artists for a reported $US 300,000 (plus a share of the film’s profits) and, with a screenplay adapted by Melvin Frank (who also served as the film’s producer) and Michael Pertwee, it commenced shooting at the Samuel Bronson Studios in Madrid, Spain in Autumn 1965, making use of that country’s surviving Roman architecture, as well as sets originally created for the 1964 film The Fall of the Roman Empire.

With direction by Richard Lester, the film starred Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford (reprising their original roles from the Broadway production), with Phil Silvers as Marcus Lycus and Buster Keaton (in his last film) as Erronius.

The supporting roles in the film were largely played by British actors and actresses, as it was economically more viable to import cast members from across the English channel, rather than from across the Atlantic Ocean, thus Hero was played by Michael Crawford, Philia by the Sydney-born actress, Annette Andre (then based in Britain), Senex by Michael Hordern, Domina by Patricia Jessel and Captain Miles Gloriosus by Leon Greene (reprising his role from the original London production.) While a roll-call of British character actors and actresses were recruited to play the bit parts, and included Roy Kinnear, Alfie Bass, Frank Thornton, Peter Butterworth, Jack May, Ronnie Brody, Pamela Brown, Beatrix Lehmann and Janet Webb, as well as British-based Australians, Bill Kerr and John Bluthal. Jon Pertwee (the younger brother of screenwriter, Michael Pertwee) also appeared in the cameo role of Crassius. (Pertwee had apparently been brought in by the director, Lester to reprise his London stage role of Marcus Lycus, when Phil Silvers was proving to be “difficult” on set, but the presence of a possible replacement in the part caused the chastened Silvers to be more amenable during the production. However, in his autobiography the normally be-spectacled Silvers admitted to suffering from a serious eye infection during filming in Spain and didn't trust overseas medical help to treat him properly, so he hid the condition as best he could, which no doubt contributed to his perceived aloofness at the time.)

Tony Walton, who had designed the original stage production, was also hired for the production design and costume design for the film as well.

Since movie musicals were losing popularity in the late 1960s, most of Stephen Sondheim’s songs from the stage production were not used for the film score. The songs retained included “Comedy Tonight”, “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid”, “Lovely” (including its reprise by Pseudolus and Hysterium), “Bring Me My Bride”, the “Funeral sequence and Dirge” and the final reprise of “Comedy Tonight.”

Musical direction for the film was by Ken Thorne, who also composed the underscoring, for which he won the movie’s sole Academy Award for ‘Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment’, as opposed to Stephen Sondheim, who composed the music and lyrics to the songs. The award was merited, however, as Thorne did not rely on Sondheim's source material for his score, save for the inventive end title sequence. Moreover Sondheim’s songs were ineligible for nomination, as the relevant Academy Award category for ‘Best Original Song’ applies to those written specifically for a movie, rather than for the use of pre-existing songs.

While the screenplay adhered to the basic plot of the stage musical, it also “opened up" the action to include additional scenes, which climaxed in a frenetic chariot chase sequence involving the principal characters, which ended the film. This included the sight gag of the aged Erronius (played by Buster Keaton) running across the path of the racing chariots oblivious to the mayhem unfolding around him, for which a stunt double was largely employed, however Keaton improvised the final gag of running into a tree branch and falling backwards onto the ground, much to the initial horror of director Richard Lester and the film crew.

Michael Crawford, whose character, Hero weathers a near-constant series of pratfalls, did most of his own stunts; a feat that he would repeat in his later popular TV comedy series Some Mothers Do ‘Áve ‘Em in which he played the accident-prone Frank Spencer.

Real fruits and vegetables were used on set for the market scenes, and were often left to rot in the sun at the end of the shooting day; as a result there were houseflies present all through shooting. The animated closing titles by Richard Williams features flies as a tribute to the fly-ridden production.

The film was released in the United States on 18 October 1966 and received a largely positive critical response from the American Press. Budgeted at around $US 2 million, it earned $US 8.5 million in actual box office domestic gross receipts during 1966–67 and was the 26th-most-popular film shown in U.S. cinemas that year.