Funny things are happening at the Musical Theatre Guild as it prepares its spring offering, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," which opens on April 17 at the Succop Theatre on the Butler County Community College campus.

A dynamic team of veteran actors are enjoying themselves in a reunion of sorts.

The husband and wife duo of Dennis A. Casey and Nedra B. Casey are sharing the stage with some of their best theatre buddies.

"Some of my very best friends and my wife are part of this show," Casey said.

"Given our current age and girth it is unlikely that you could find a vehicle that we could all appear in and be suitable," he said of the "Forum" musical. "This show provides that opportunity. It has been real work but great fun to be together again, perhaps for the last time."

His wife echoed his sentiments by saying the experience is "a blast."

Casey is playing the role of Miles Gloriosis.

"He is a loud, vain Roman general that I will play with a decided Napoleon complex," Casey said.

His wife is playing the character, Domina.

"The name says it all," Nedra Casey said. "I play Senex's domineering wife. She truly loves her philandering husband but is self-centered and vain. So she tries to reduce Senex to a powerless puppet as she tries to run all aspects of his life."

Nedra has appeared on stage many times but in this role, she will be singing her first solo. "I'm confident of my acting ability but singing alone is scary," she said.

Her stage husband is played by Butler's Jerry Johnston.

"Senex is just past middle-age with a domineering wife whom he wishes to escape and a desire to 'sow his last oat' as he says in the play," Johnston said.

"Senex has two great numbers in the show, one of them with Pseudolus, Hysterium and Lycus which is about mistaken identity and should be quite funny," he added.

The character Pseudolus is being played by Bob Dandoy of Butler.

"He is the typical, lovable con man but there's a 'higher purpose' to his machinations and schemes; he is a Roman slave trying to gain his freedom," Dandoy said.

"This is a role I've wanted to play for years! It just seems my schedule never came into line with the other times it was being done," said Dandoy, who noted the experience is even better with friends.

"Everything seemed to work out perfectly. And when I found out some of my old theatre friends were auditioning, I wanted to do it even more."

Though Dandoy may be feeling his age after rehearsals, it makes the experience no less sweet, he said.

"This is a very demanding role. Pseudolus is on stage a lot and there's a lot of music for the part. It's a lot of physical comedy which I love to do ... and, let's just say, I'm not as young as I used to be!"

Bill Geibel of Penn Township is an environmental, health and safety compliance professional by day but at night is donning the persona of Hysterium, the "slave-in-chief" at the house of Senex.

"Let's just say that people who know me can see a little Hysterium in me," Geibel said.

"To be truthful, this role has not presented any stretches for me. Anyone who knows me only from work or social settings may disagree," Geibel said.

He said he has learned something new about himself through the show. "That I can hit a high G under pressure. That's about one or two notes higher that I normally can comfortably reach," he said.

Geibel also appeared in MTG's original version of the musical. "'Forum,' in my opinion, is one of the funniest musicals ever. I was in MTG's first production of 'Forum' in 1976 playing the part of Erronius," he said.

"Dennis Casey was also in that production and after 33 years we still agree that it was the show we had the most fun working on. Since then, I've always wanted to play the part of Hysterium."

One of the younger actors on this stage is Joel Richardson, who plays Hero. This high school senior said he is soaking in the whole experience. "I've really been able to take a lot from the more experienced actors and the directors, just on how to make things work in a show," Richardson said.

"Hero is a confused, sheltered young man who discovers his first love and does anything to have her as his own. He's also not the sharpest tool in the shed," he said.

Director Phil Ball said he knew from the moment he heard MTG was going to produce this play he wanted to be involved.

"'Forum' is just an irreverent romp that is only there to entertain," Ball said. "In one of the copies I bought a while back, there is a little introduction that says something to the point of 'Forum' being a salute to Vaudevillians and should be performed in that fashion."

"It is a show that you can get away with almost anything as long as it is funny. It is a show that does not try to deny that we are actors on stage doing a show but it isn't a free-for-all. The wall between the audience and the actors is mostly nonexistent so that gives us quite a bit of liberty," he added.

Ball, thrilled with his cast, thinks it could be a one-of-a-kind opportunity he is experiencing.

"The balance of veterans and youth is fantastic," he said. "I said to one person that this cast is like a comet, you may only see something like this once."

<B>WHO: </B>Musical Theatre Guild<B>WHAT: </B>"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"<B>WHEN: </B>7:30 p.m. April 17 and 18 and 3 p.m. April 19<B>WHERE: </B>Succop Theater on the Butler Community College campus<B>TICKETS: </B>$15 for adults and $12 for students. Available at May's Music Shoppe, 247 E. Jefferson St., from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays<B>INFORMATION: </B>724-287-8243