["A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"] has a book that is not only marvelous but without period in respect to its style. The Burt Shevelove-Larry Gelbart script is tremendously funny—it is literary, consistent and impeccably structured. It may well be the best book in all our musical theatre….

The final contribution that makes for [its successful revival] … is Stephen Sondheim's score, which went unappreciated even when the show was winning its various prizes. Since this music cannot be separated from the book, you almost forget it is there—the composer suffers because of his very success. It is easier to notice Sondheim's lyrics—they are so clever they are a dazzling exercise on their own. But his music is superb: Technically fresh, filled with melody, accurate in satire and, most of all, theatrically conceived.

Martin Gottfried, in a review of "A Funny Thing...