In 1997, Whoopi Goldberg became the first woman to play Pseudolus, the lead in Stephen Sondheim’s lesser-known hit A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Despite Goldberg’s celebrity pedigree, critics were initially wary. She was inheriting the role from a career-making performance by Nathan Lane. Plus, Forum is a bawdy ‘sex-farce’: how would its outrageous, and often misogynistic, gender politics work with a woman at the helm? 

In a shock to absolutely no one, it took less than two seconds into the show’s opening number for people to realise that these criticisms were completely unfounded. Goldberg added spades to the show, challenging its thornier gender stereotypes with chagrin and more laughs-per-minute than the best stand-ups could dream of.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Watch This, Chapel Off Chapel, 2023. Photo supplied

In the program notes for this newest revival of Sondheim’s uproarious crowd-pleaser from Watch This, director Melanie Hillman rightly...