This semester the Friars are performing their version of the classic and ridiculously long-named musical comedy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Directed by Steve Hinkle and starring Areil Eli as Pseudolus, Steve Patane as Senex, Daniele Brodeur as Domina and Rasdad Allen as Hero.

The show focuses on the lives of a group of ancient Greeks, including slaves, brothel workers, pirates and long lost children.

We sat in on a rehearsal a few weeks ago and what we saw, we honestly liked. In fact, we came away impressed with how good the show is already. The casting of Eli as Pseudolus, a slave who wishes to buy his freedom from the house of Senex, is superb.

At the beginning of the show he introduces the audience to the show as the character Prologus, a character who explains the characters and the general storyline, revealing that what we are watching is somewhat of a show within a show, with our narrator being an actor playing the part of Pseudolus.

Trust us, it's really not as confusing as it sounds. In fact, it helped pull us into this story even better, as Eli is so full of energy whenever he is on stage.

Not to say that the other characters were slacking in the quality control department either. Watching Hinkle, you could see how he was striving to get the best out of his actors. He was there for an actor whenever they had a question, throwing his support at them whenever they were confused.

He seemed easy to get along with, allowing the actors breathing room while still telling them where to go, what to do and when to do it. However, he also had a firm hand when dealing with things such as tardiness and slacking off. Hinkle was fair if you were trying your best.

For the most part though, there was not much of a need for the stern and tough Steve Hinkle. As said before, we were pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed the show even in its infant stages.

The set is half built, the actors have no costumes, they miss lines from time to time and we had to see several scenes three or four times until Hinkle was convinced they had it right.

However, that did not stop us from catching ourselves tapping our feet and humming tunes from the show, or laughing at the same joke three or four times in a row.

As a rough cut, the show is good. We can't wait to see what it will look like closer to its debut. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum bows on March 28 and 29 at 8 p.m., March 30 at 2 p.m. and April 3, 4 and 5 at 8 p.m.