Steve Fenley, Jim Salners, & Kyle Greer

 Houston Press Review

Stephen Sondheim supplied writers Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove with this show's radiantly sunny score and peerlessly clever lyrics. The story's source is arguably ancient Roman "vulgar" comedian Plautus, with his classic plots involving wily slaves, lovesick Juvenals, egocentric warriors, hen-pecked husbands and termagant wives, but Forum glorifies another golden era: that of the Catskills and the borscht belt -- a time of leggy showgirls, smutty jokes and low-comedy shtick. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants! Forum's only reason to exist is to entertain, and this show does that in spades, thanks in no small part to Texas Rep's jaw-dropping joie de vivre. In a sumptuous production that dazzles with spirited costuming (Fernando Zamudio) and set design (Jesse Dreikosen), even the lighting entertains (Robert Eubanks). As the clever slave who yearns for the freedom he can only achieve by obtaining the virginal slave girl next door for his young virginal master, Steve Fenley gives originator Zero Mostel a real run for his money -- mugging, prancing and skittering about, always with a plan up his sleeve. Joshua Estrada is properly smitten as the boy next door; Kyle Greer is queenly hysterical as house toady Hysterium; Deb Haas brings girth and voice to the shrewish wife; Mark Laskowski is suitably oily and harmless as pimp Marcus Lycus; and Jim Salners wears his dirty-old-man toga like a trench coat. And then there's Kregg Alan Dailey as pumped-up general Miles Gloriosus, more in love with himself than anyone else. And why wouldn't he be? Dailey's idiosyncratic portrayal has to be seen to be believed. Calling to mind something akin to Jack Palance crossed with Jack Nicholson, he stops the show whenever he appears. Under Craig Miller's sprightly direction, the show's all of one piece -- hilarious.

Through May 26. 14243 Stuebner Airline Road, 281-583-7573.