MEDIA RELEASE
Bruce Dow cast as Pseudolus
in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
October 22, 2008… Artistic director Des McAnuff is pleased to announce that Bruce Dow will play the central role of Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – the first musical Mr. McAnuff will direct at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
Mr. Dow will be joined on stage by one of the funniest groups of actors ever to assemble on the Avon Theatre stage. Stephen Ouimette willplay Hysterium. Dan Chameroy will take the part of Miles Gloriosus. Randy Hughson will play Senex, and Mike Nadajewski, Hero.
“These are some of our company’s finest comic performers – ideal to deliver this bold, brash, risqué and hilariously funny musical,” says Mr. McAnuff, the Tony-winning director of the global hit Jersey Boys and of the upcoming Broadway production of Guys and Dolls.
Mr. Dow, who is just winding up his knock-out performance as the Emcee in Cabaret, has been a favourite with Festival audiences for a decade. His memorable roles include Sancho Panza in Man of La Mancha, Nicely-Nicely in Guys and Dolls, Mr. Bumble in Oliver!, the Baker in Into the Woods and Luther Billis in South Pacific. He also played the servant Dromio of Syracuse in the 2007 production of The Comedy of Errors, a play which influenced the writers of Forum, Stephen Sondheim, Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove.
“I think it’s safe to say we wouldn’t have A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum without Shakespeare’s play The Comedy of Errors,” says Mr. McAnuff. “Forum is the perfect hybrid of Plautine comedy and musical theatre. But it’s worth noting that the plays of Plautus were single-plot structures. One of the great innovations of Forum is that it embraces a multiple-plot structure, just as Shakespeare employed when he took on Plautus in The Comedy of Errors.
“In my opinion Forum is the funniest of all the musical comedies, and that is in no small part because it has the deepest roots.”
The Festival is pleased to welcome back Messrs. Chameroy, Hughson and Ouimette for 2009.
Mr. Ouimette returns for his 17th season, after his glorious interpretation of Baptista Minola in The Taming of the Shrew and Lafew in All’s Well That Ends Well. His other Stratford credits include the title roles in Hamlet, Richard III, Amadeus and King John, as well as Estragon inWaiting for Godot, Touchstone in As You Like It, Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew and Thersites in Troilus and Cressida. Mr. Ouimette has received a Gemini Award, for his part in the television series Slings and Arrows, three Doras, a Sterling and a Blizzard award, as well as the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.
Mr. Chameroy, who this season played Don Manrique in Fuente Ovejuna and Martin Townsend in Palmer Park, has a rich musical history. Here at Stratford he played a critically acclaimed Curly in 2007’s hit Oklahoma! and Gaston Lachailles in Gigi. He made a powerful debut inStratford as Lancelot in the 1997 production of Camelot. Equally skilled as a classical actor, Mr. Chameroy appeared in As You Like It, Cymbeline, Henry IV, The Tempest and Timon of Athens. His musical roles elsewhere include Dexter Haven in High Society, the Groom inThe Drowsy Chaperone and Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, for which he won a Dora Award.
Mr. Hughson is returning to Stratford for his second season after distinguishing himself in 2008 as Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, the Second Gravedigger in Hamlet, and the Interpreter in All’s Well That Ends Well. He has performed leading roles in theatres across Canada, including his stand-out performance as Canadian country music icon Stompin’ Tom Connors in The Ballad of Stoppin’ Tom. He has been nominated for 10 Dora Awards, three Edmonton Sterling Awards, two Calgary Betty Mitchell Awards and three Vancouver Jessie Awards and received one of each.
Mr. Nadajewski will be making his Stratford debut after several seasons at the Shaw Festival, where he played such roles as Young Buddy inFollies: In Concert, Fletcher in Wonderful Town and Charlie in Mack and Mabel.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum will run in the Avon Theatre, from June 11 to November 1, 2009, opening June 20.
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has already announced key casting for Macbeth; Julius Caesar; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Cyrano de Bergerac; The Importance of Being Earnest; Ever Yours, Oscar; Phedre; and Three Sisters. Further casting announcements will be made as details become available.
