![\"Cady](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f072e084614141c776e3936b89190e4e.jpeg\"\/)
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Cady Huffman stars as Pseudolus in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”<\/p>\n
The character was written with a male actor in mind, but Huffman won’t be the first woman to don Pseudolus’ toga. Whoopi Goldberg took the role on Broadway in 1997, replacing Nathan Lane.<\/p>\n
Huffman said she’s still not quite sure how she was cast for the show. She’s never even been to Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
“They called me out of the blue,” she said in a phone interview from Connecticut. “Absolutely out of the blue.”<\/p>\n
It turns out that she and Sarah Boone, executive director of Theatre Jacksonville, have a mutual friend; Huffman’s voice teacher also worked as Boone’s music director. “He connected the two of us when I wanted to approach her for the show,” Boone said. “It’s very exciting.”<\/p>\n
The show is a joint production between Theatre Jacksonville and the Florida Theatre. It’s an “in-concert” production, more like a stage reading than a full-on play. Actors will deliver their lines and sing the familiar songs, but there won’t be full sets and costume changes and the like.<\/p>\n
It all takes place on the Florida Theatre stage, which measures 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep. That has to hold the cast, a 26-piece orchestra and a choir numbering around 30. Jean Tait will direct the show, but she said she’s not worried because she did the same thing last year when Linda Purl starred in “Mame”<\/a> on a similarly crowded stage.<\/p>\n “At least I\u2019m coming in knowing what my limitations are,” Tait said. “You don\u2019t have a lot of room for moving people around.”<\/p>\n Jean Tait will direct “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”<\/p>\n She said directing a stage reading is easier than directing a full production, but it comes with its own set of problems. Actors will stand when they are “on stage,” and sit when they’re not. Tait said she’s thankful for some rehearsal time because there are parts of the script she and the cast will have to figure out.<\/p>\n “This show has a lot of slapstick,” she said. “How do we do slapstick if they’re just standing there?”<\/p>\n Joey Chancey<\/a>, a Broadway conductor and Jacksonville native, will conduct the orchestra and choir for the show, which features several big musical numbers.<\/p>\n Huffman said she’s never played Pseudolus, but she’s seen the play on Broadway several times. “I\u2019ve seen it a few times. “I find it extremely funny, one of the legitimately funny musicals.”<\/p>\n So she was asked by people she doesn’t really know to play a role she’s never tried in a city she’s never visited, and still said yes?<\/p>\n “That whole job just sounds like so much fun,” she said. “Any time you get to sing with an orchestra, it\u2019s just a delight.”<\/p>\n Huffman, who did a memorable turn in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” also stars in \u201cEverything\u2019s Going to Be Great,<\/a>\u201d a new movie with Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney that was released this year. The film, about a couple trying to keep a struggling regional theater afloat, was written by Steven Rogers and was based largely on his parents. Huffman said she took the role because she knew his parents. “His father gave me my first Equity card,” she said.<\/p>\n![\"Jean](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/36a214d980115523a751901d519d03f8.jpeg\"\/)
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