Fresh from a triumph with their opening English-language musical Cabaret, Paris’ newest theatre, the Lido2 in the Champs-Elysees, has announced its first show back following a ten-month closedown for a major makeover will be the hilarious A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum at the end of the year.
With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim from the book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, it marks the continuation of the Lido2’s artistic director Jean-Luc Choplin’s lifelong obsession with classic American musicals and the work of Sondheim and will reopen the Lido2 on 1 December.
When Choplin ran the long-established Theatre du Chatelet, he introduced Parisians to A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park With George, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Passion, all by Sondheim, as well as other Broadway classics like My Fair Lady, On the Town, The Sound of Music, 42nd Street and Singin’ in the Rain, all in English with French surtitles.
In 1962 ‘Forum’ became the first Broadway show for which Sondheim wrote music and lyrics. Based on the bawdy farces of ancient Roman playwright Plautus, it starred Zero Mostel as the slave Pseudolus. Mostel repeated the role in the successful movie version four years later. When the show came to the West End in 1963, legendary comedian Frankie Howerd took the lead.
The Lido2 production will be helmed by Cal McCrystal, famed as a director of comedies. The Northern Irishman was physical comedy director of the award-winning National Theatre production of One Man, Two Guvnors with James Corden and was physical comedy consultant on the two Paddington movies. In 2018 he directed Iolanthe for the English National Opera.
Jeremy Chapman
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