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At last: a National Theater musical without an iota of subtext! As followers of tuners at this address have long been able to attest, the National has been second to none in plumbing the heretofore hidden depths of some classic American shows, among them My Fair Lady, Oklahoma! and the defining Carousel of anyone's dreams. What, then, might this aesthetic bring to bear on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the first Broadway musical of NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner's relatively fledgling reign? (Hytner had said he was going to steer clear of the Broadway musical canon, but such pronouncements are made to be abandoned.)
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Occupying a category all their own are the fear-inducing thighs of Philip Quast's feather-festooned Miles Gloriosus, who strides on late in the first act with absurd conviction and that amazing voice, which ends up playing second fiddle to a physique that, frankly, doesn't seem altogether possible.
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