IT'S not easy when a musical starts with its best known number or in the case of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, it's only familiar number. All too often it means there's not really anywhere for the production to go and all thereafter is disappointment.

Thankfully this was not the case with AAODS' centenary production which set off at a cracking pace and never once took its foot off the gas either visually or vocally.

Let's make no bones about it, as far as I'm concerned A Funny?Thing is hardly Sondheim's best musical. Only one or two numbers are memorable and if the set were more exciting it could risk being the best thing about the show, but it is a super vehicle for a star turn and in Rob Jenkins AAODS was not founding wanting.

As wily slave Pseudolus Rob commanded the stage from prologue to finale never once putting a sandaled foot wrong.

So, he may not be a Pavarotti, but when it comes to putting a song over he can't be beaten and when it comes to comedy and energy he is a past master.

It would of course be a sorry show if that was all there was to it, but under the watchful eye of director Ken Caswell

the action is polished and professional with not one opportunity to make the most of the bawdy humour lost.

Of course although at time it may seem like it, A Funny?Thing is not a one man show and Rob?Jenkins benefited from some superb support from his fellow company members.

Shining among these was AAODS stalwart Patrick Martin who looked every inch the badly behaved patrician in his purple toga.

Pitching his comedy beautifully he worked well with Deborah Harrington who gave her newfound comic talents full reign in the role of Domina.

The comedy number Everybody Ought to Have a Maid, which featured both Rob and Patrick and Deborah's Act II delight That Dirty Old Man, were two of the undoubted highlights of the evening.

Other excellent performances came from Andrew Fowler as Hero, whose early nerves soon settled, Peter Winter as Lycus, Lucy Phillips who made a promising debut as Philia, Patrick Callaghan who made for a swaggering Miles Gloriosus and Tony?Reynolds as Hysterium who after a slightly wooden start came into his own during the lively funeral sequence.

Some lovely cameos by the nubile courtesans were complemented by the four energetic proteans played by Neil Hopkins, Barbara Bennett, Jacqui Danielle and James Bryant and the equally energetic foot soldiers played by John?Meredith, Martin Phillips, Peter Bourne and John?Benjamin.

When it comes to comedy it is all so often a case of less is more and never was this better illustrated than by the beautifully understated playing of Barrie Jackson as Erronius who stole every scene and held the key to the plot - and I use that word loosely - in his befuddled hand.

While heaping praise on the principals it's all too easy to overlook the chorus which gave a polished performance under the musical direction of Ross Leadbetter and more than lived up to its past reputation.

In all this was a production that?I enjoyed far more than I expected to. Not being a great fan of slapsticky farce I was hardly relishing the thought of two and a half hours of it and yet I have to admit that the time flew and by the end of the night, although exhausted by the unrelenting pace of the show, I was half hoping for another chorus.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum run at the Borough Theatre in Abergavenny until Saturday and tickets are available now from the theatre box office on 01873 850805.