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Funny Thing has opened to wild enthusiasm and the actors, musicians, set designer and director have every right to be well pleased.
The book is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart from the works of Plautus and the score was by the then young Stephen Sondheim.
At 42 years old, it stands the test of time. This, I believe, is its third London outing. In brief, a conniving, sly slave Pseudolus (Desmond Barrit) sets the scene in ancient Rome where his hen-pecked master Senex (Sam Kelly), shrewish wife Domina (Isla Blair) and son Hero (Vince Leigh) are stock figures in farce and pantomime.
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Of course it is the virgin. Meanwhile a muscular warrior Gloriosus (Philip Quast) arrives to claim her. He appears to have ordered her from a catalogue. All is resolved when the old man discovers that the warrior and the virgin are in fact his long-lost children.