In four highly comedic roles, and each with a completely different style of comedy, John Suchy as Senex, Joe Mannherz as Miles, Perry Alexion as Lycus, and Eyvo Johnson as Hysterium threaten to steal the show. Mr. Suchy, in the role of "dirty old man/harried husband" is a hornball of epic proportions, and his dry, sarcastic delivery – many times addressed to the audience – is spot on and hilarious. (His delivery of a Viagra joke stops the show.) Mr. Johnson's run around farcical clown take on Hysterium is an excellent choice, and he is a master at the double-take, slow burn and wide-eyed smile. Mr. Alexion's Lycus, purveyor of the flesh, is another absolute scream, bedecked in a Price Valiant wig and bedazzled robes. He, too, has excellent delivery. When the three join in "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid", the audience positively screams with delight, and earns one of the biggest (and most deserved) hands of the entire evening. Finally, Mr. Mannherz is all pomp and posture as the self-absorbed warrior Miles Glorioso. His ego and constant weightlifting poses are a hoot, and he plays the audience like a fiddle.
When this production really takes off – "The House of Marcus Lycus," "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," and the farcical hi-jinx of the act two funeral sequence - it soars. But when it doesn't, namely in the opening scenes and most egregiously, "Comedy Tonight," it borders on dull, and is primarily functional. Some of this has to do with the staging by Mr. Desmone, who seems to have left much of act one in the hands of his lead. Elsewhere, particularly in the Funeral Sequence, his direction is tight, absolutely hilarious and demanding, yet executed with a breathtaking ease by his game company.
But when left to the devices of his Pseudolus, B. Thomas Rinaldi, this Forum is strictly by the book. Resembling both Zero Mostel and Nathan Lane, both Tony winners for their efforts in the role, Rinaldi doesn't even come close to the required charisma and winning charm necessary to endear us to the slave who yearns to be free. He gets the complicated lyrics right, and he seems to have down his blocking and choreography, but he brings little of what I assume got him the role in the first place – presence - to the stage. It doesn't help that he hardly projects and huffs and puffs his way through moments when he must sing and dance simultaneously. His moment to really get us on his side, "Free," goes by with little lasting impression. I have to wonder where he came up with this take on the role; he is clearly not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. The self-satisfied smirk and gleam in his eye tells us he thinks he is a riot. He isn't. He fares much better when his co-stars drag him along, and he is even funny on his own in act two several times, but never with a genuine feel that he is having fun, but rather with an undercurrent of desperation in knowing his supporting cast is wholly better than he is. Unfortunately, he brings the whole show down a notch.
Still, this Forum is quite good, and deserves your theatre-going dollar. The ensemble and the spectacle insure that you will, indeed, have some comedy tonight.
PHOTO: John Suchy, Joan Dunn and Eyvo Johnson. Courtesy of DCT.
