Forum - Director alan paul on the wonderful design team behind the show

I'm very excited because I'm working with Jim Noone on the set, and I, of course, started at this theatre as an Assistant Director, and I met Jim during a production of Noël Coward's "Design for Living" when I was assisting Michael, and I just fell in love with the way he designs plays, and when we did the Bard's Broadway two years ago, we needed somebody to do a concert set, who understood how to layout an orchestra, and how to do these, and he had done concerts with Lonny Price of the New York Philharmonic, so he said he would come on board and help us, and he had a great design for that, so when it came time to do "Forum," there was only one person to call, and that was Jim Noone, and I'm very happy that he said he would do it, and he's done the show, I think, three times, so I hope he'll finally get it right, and what's different about this design is that the play consists of having three Roman houses onstage, and we've decided to make them almost black and white, and have the costumes have all the color in the show, so the costumes will stand out, I hope, quite spectacularly, from the set, and the costumes are being done by David Woolard, who is a great designer in New York City, who's done everything from the revival of "West Side Story" on Broadway to the revival of "Damn Yankees," which was the second Broadway show which I ever saw, so it's a real thrill after that to be able to get to work with him, but I haven't told him that because I don't want to age myself, but I've told you, and there will be a lot of men running around in togas and women running around in courtesan outfits and a lot of color. Choreography is being done by Josh Rhodes, who choreographed "Cinderella" on Broadway, and I went to see "Cinderella," first of all, because I love that musical and, second of all, because I had a friend who was conducting it, and I fell in love with this choreography because it was so smart and sharp and funny, and it stayed very closely in the old-fashioned musical comedy style, which most people don't do, so when it came time to pick a choreographer for this, there was one person, it was Josh, and I met with him, and he said, "Of course, I'll do it. I love 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,'" and we have a lot of surprises cooked up for you for these big numbers.