A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - It was a "Comedy Tonight" at the Fort Wayne Civic Theatre

This farce is so wonderful - so clever and joyful.  It was great fun to introduce my partner in life to this delightful musical play, which I will abbreviate to AFTH. Originally a Broadway show and then later a 1966 film, this comedy was inspired by the stories of a real Roman playwright, Plautus, who was born in 254 BC.  The story centers around three adjacent Roman houses and their occupants.  In one house, a young man, Hero, falls in love with a beautiful, innocent courtesan next door. She, however, has been promised by the brothel's owner to a returning soldier.  Hero's own clever slave Pseudolus then creates a ruse to win the girl away for his master and buy his own freedom in the process.

The show is fast-paced, with many plot twists and madcap stage choreography.  The opening and slamming of doors and windows, characters coming in and out of same, and running all over the place, is charmingly vaudevillian.  No wonder Plautus himself was a great success as a writer - he's said to have written 120 or more plays, of which 20 still survive in their entirety.

As a child I saw the movie AFTH, starring Zero Mostel, Buster Keaton, Phil Silvers, and Michael Crawford.  I love the pratfalls and physical comedy.  AFTH was the legendary Buster Keaton's last role - the actor from silent film days.    The musical score is wonderful - written by the brilliant Stephen Sondheim.  The song "Comedy Tonight" is so catchy; my friend, who had never heard it before, began singing it spontaneously over the next few days.  In the great tradition of Greek and eventually Roman theater - "tragedy tomorrow - comedy tonight!" - is alive and well downtown in 'The Fort' as we call it.

The cast of this current production at the Civic Theatre is spot on.  When the actor portraying the soldier Gloriosus pounds out the song "Bring Me My Bride" in his deep baritone, I am simultaneously thrilled and terrified. I need to remind myself, "this is just a play!" When the talented actor who plays the slave Hysterium disguises himself as a girl and reprises the number "Lovely," mooning about himself that "I'm lovely," I'm completely convinced he is!  Truly lovely, in his short tunic, hairy legs and sandals, he is: shrouded in a white gown.  I don't want to give too much of the story away here, but it gets funnier.

The story is sexist - I can't change that.  It is what it is.  The female parts are rather stereotypical of the patriarchal times then in Rome - a shrewish wife, the sexpotly concubines, the dimwitted but luscious virgin.  It all had all of the early-1960s take on gender roles at that time, when the AFTH book was written by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gilbert. Sexist though it is, the actors in Fort Wayne portraying the "working women" of the sex trade are delightful.  They filled their obligations on stage with vim and relish.  

Characters including twins, an S/M dominatrix, a graceful feline, a flexible gymnast, and other actresses and actors were fantastic at the choreography and stunts they had to perform.  I loved their bright costumes and the classic sets.  Fort Wayne Civic Theatre is doing a great job. These have been a couple of extremely challenging years for all performers.  It's so good to see them back on stage in person.

There are three more performances of AFTH at the Arts United Center in downtown Fort Wayne:  this Friday evening August 6 at 7:30 pm, Saturday the 7th (same), and Sunday August 8 at 2 pm.  The Arts United Center is a grand place to see a play or musical performance.  The 660-seat auditorium is one of Fort Wayne's most important landmarks.  It was designed by the renowned architect Louis Kahn, and is the only Kahn building in the Midwest.  Born in Estonia, Kahn immigrated to the US with his family at a young age, and studied at the University of Pennsylvania and worked at Yale and in private practice.  Built in 1973, the building has a brick exterior, with tons of light and shadows in the sparse yet grand staircases and common areas.  Seating is accessible and comfortable, even roomy, in the modern, technically updated, inner shell.  Referencing a violin in a case as Kahn's inspiration, the auditorium itself is an inner compartment, with folded concrete walls making up its carapace. The box office is offering "socially distanced" seating in the back half of the theater, meaning every other row is occupied, and seats are blocked off between groups.  There isn't a bad seat in the house, and tech and sound were so good I could hear every word the actors said.

 

Go see AFTH this weekend if you're free.  Plautus's works are some of the earliest surviving comedies and dramas in Latin literature.  Plautus's epitaph reads, translated:

Since Platus is dead, Comedy mourns,

The stage is deserted; then Laughter, Jest and Wit, and all Melody's countless numbers wept together.

RIP, Plautus, Buster Keaton, and all: we are truly grateful for your gifts.

Arts United Center box office:(260)422-4226

John Fogerty at the Foellinger Theatre Unabashedly, Thoroughly Rocked Franke Park in 2021

Seams Like - seems like.

I have a friend, a former high school teacher, who writes Facebook posts about baseball and titles them, 'seams like'.  He's a big fan of the game, especially of the St. Louis Cardinals.  Most fans can relate to John Fogerty's classic hit, Centerfield - and John played it at his concert on July 15, 2021 in Fort Wayne.  It's a crowd favorite that crosses and unites generations.

 "Put me in, Coach!" Fans still sing along with the lyrics at major league games.

Fogerty is still a force of nature at age 76.  As front man and songwriter for Creedence Clearwater Revival, his creative 'swamp rock' style music spoke to many Americans in the late 1960s and 70s.  CCR, a quartet including John's brother Tom, followed The Grateful Dead at Woodstock in 1969.  Reportedly, the Dead had a long set into the night and the crowd was sleepy when CCR took the stage August 12, 1969.  Fogerty supposedly felt the performance was lackluster, and under the circumstances would not allow CCR to be included in the concert film documentary.  Finally in 2019, CCR's Live at Woodstock was released and includes such chart successes such as Bad Moon Rising, Proud Mary, Born on the Bayou and Suzie Q.  John and his current band, which included two of his sons, played all these crowd-pleasers at the concert in Fort Wayne recently.  Media screens behind the band projected old films of kids riding bikes, dangling in tire swings at bayou riverbanks, and like-mindedly sweet nostalgia.

I am old enough to remember John was nearly always politically active with his music.  Anti-Vietnam war groups, Pacifists, and civil rights supporters found his songs uplifting in the '60s and '70s.  Folks still feel the same way about his stuff to this day. His song Fortunate Son, which could be considered an anti-war protest anthem, has been celebrated for decades by people all across the political spectrum. John made it into the National Guard right before he was drafted in the 60s.

In January of 2021, Fogerty released his new single, Weeping in the Promised Land, which appears to be a social/political statement about George Floyd's death aftermath and other USA-2020 states of affairs.  John is positioning himself to be current and forefront in the global rock and roll scene. This recent song is a soul sensitive, haunting gospel-type ballad.

Sons Shane and Tyler are part of the current band, and are excellent musicians in their own right.  John's wife Julie is from Indiana, and the two were married in Elkhart.  In addition to their three children together, John has three children from his first marriage which ended in 1970.  These old rockers are so amazing - John had incredible energy on stage and his wonderfully raspy, howly, distinctive voice sounds just the same. The audience was clearly delighted.

The Foellinger Theatre is such a fabulous venue - the open-air sides, great refreshments (alcohol too), convenient parking and genial Indiana crowd - what a wonderful evening and what a way to recharge one's batteries!  John's a national headliner and so tickets weren't cheap - our seats were about $100 each.  But for an occasional splurge, it was well worth it. John's a national treasure - I've listened to Fogerty on the radio nearly all my life, and I've always wanted to see him. I'm so glad I had that chance to make that happen.  Peace!  I'll be back!  If the old man down the road doesn't get me first - you've got to hidey-hide, and jump and run away -