Sesser Opera House Musical a Hit
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The curtain rose Thursday night on The Opera House Company of Sesser's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"--and it's a hit. Tickets for the rest of the performances are being sold at the door.
The old adage tells us "When in Rome, do as the Romans." For those attending that means there were plenty of laughs from the classical musical comedy at The Historic Sesser Opera House.
The Show will run tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday Tickets are $10 for Adults, $8 for seniors, and $5 for Students.
Forum will mark The Opera House Co's fourth season since its creation in 2007 and the audience can expect to see some familiar faces along with some new actors, too. The cast includes Travis Bond, Hobie Graham, Levi Overturf and Quinton Sledge all of Mt. Vernon, Christie Barnfield, Audrey Blake and Jim Ford of Benton; Trey Cockrum of Tamaroa; Amanda Graskewicz and Aaron Hopkins of West Frankfort; Matthew Lappin of Sesser, Sara Alstat of Vergennes and Jayne Ballantyne, Emily Dixon, Austin McBride, Brooke Sutton and Shannon Wright all of Pinckneyville.
Forum is directed by Aisha Mitchell of Sesser, musical direction by Sara Alstat, and for the first time, the orchestra will be under the direction of retired Benton High School band director Bill King.
This musical takes place in the city of Rome sometime during the reign of Emperor Nero. Pseudolus (Sledge) is "the lyingest, cheatingest, sloppiest slave in all of Rome", whose only wish is to buy his freedom from his master's parents, the henpecked Senex (Ford) and his dominating wife Domina (Alstat). When he finds out that his master, Senex's handsome but none too smart son Hero (Cockrum), has fallen in love with Philia (Dixon), a beautiful virgin courtesan from the house of procurer Marcus Lycus (Hopkins) next door, Pseudolus makes a deal: he will get the girl for Hero in return for his freedom. Unfortunately, the virgin has been sold to the great Roman soldier, Captain Miles Gloriosus (Lappin), who even now is on his way from conquering Crete to claim her as his bride. Pseudolus blackmails his overseer, Hysterium (Overturf) into masquerading as the corpse of Philia to fool the captain, but, as they always must in a farce, things go wrong at every turn.
In the end, the boy gets the girl; Senex's next-door neighbor Erronius (Barnfield) finds that Phillia and Miles Gloriosus are in fact his long lost children; and Pseudolus gets his freedom, a beautiful courtesan to be his wife and a dowry of 10,000 minae, compliments of Marcus Lycus.
With its unforgettable zany characters, a hysterical, perfectly constructed book by Larry Gelbart (MASH and City Of Angels) and Burt Shevelove, and witty Stephen Sondheim songs, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum has long been recognized as one of Broadway's funniest musical comedies.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum is presented through a gracious donation to the Opera House Co. from Bill Bonan, II of People's National Bank.