The Theater: Laugh Potion

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

by BURT SHEVELOVE and LARRY GELBART

Plautus was the Neil Simon of Rome. When the tired businessman of the Eternal City trudged home from his officina on one of the seven hills in his sweat-stained toga and quaffed a quick goblet of Falernian, his wife probably said, "Carissime, in thealrum eamus.

Plautus novam fabulam dat." Wise woman. The old dramatic farceur manufactured situations that have kept audiences laughing for 23 centu ries. This is not news on New York's Via Magna Alba. Ten years ago, Burt Shevelove's and Larry Gelbart's free adaptation of Plautus'...

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