By Roy Hasegawa, Manoa Valley Theatre
"Forbidden" stars: back row from left, Lesley Alexander
("King and I"), Lance Rae (Cameron Mackintosh) and Lance
Wheeler ("King and I"), front from left, Kathleen Stuart
(Mary Poppins), Suzanne Boyd (Anna Karenina).
Gossip takes
center stage
Irreverent production
By Tim Ryan
takes on Broadway's sacred cows
Star-BulletinHold on to your funny bones, Gerard Alessandrini's "Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back!" is coming to Manoa Valley Theatre. This installment of "Forbidden Broadway" -- which played in Honolulu six years ago -- pokes fun at such Broadway luminaries as Cameron Mackintosh, Nathan Lane, Julie Andrews and Andrew Lloyd Webber; current hits like "Rent" and "Sunset Boulevard"; revivals like "The King and I" and "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum"; and favorite divas like Bernadette Peters, and Patti LuPone.
"We never kick the shows that are down," Alessandrini by phone from New York City. "If you're in our show that means you're in the company of big shows and big stars."
Alessandrini wrote and directed this amiable vivisection of current theater, transforming insider information and insights into show-biz energy performed by five actors, three women and two men.
"I keep my ears open to the gossip of Broadway and I see most of shows and buy all the cast albums," Alessandrini said.
His original "Forbidden Broadway" ran, in annual versions, for more than a decade after its January 1982 opening. When the number of Broadway musicals declined in the early 1990s, leaving little fodder for Alessandrini to satirize, he created "Forbidden Hollywood," which chided such box-office bonanzas as "Forrest Gump" and "Pulp Fiction."
But even that production took 15 minutes out for theater material because people missed the clubbiness and in-jokes of a show devoted entirely to the commercial theater, he said. With the success of "Rent" and "Bring in Da Noise," as well as classic revivals like "The King And I" and "Forum," Alessandrini found enough material to launch another revue.
Manoa Valley Theatre
"If you're in our show that means you're
in the company of big shows and big stars,"
says Gerard Alessandrini, creator of
"Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back!"
As a young man Alessandrini enjoyed parodying show tunes and theater music. Then he began putting a show together, opening a nightclub act in 1981.In New York, the "Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back!" audience sees ridiculous breast cones on a gown for "Evita," a satire of Michael Crawford's "Phantom of the Opera" voice and a kitty-stroking Andrew Lloyd Webber.
As for the songs, the sentimental "Seasons of Love" from "Rent" is reinterpreted as "Seasons of Hype!" and "Showboat's" "Ol' Man River" gets lyrics like, "They should cut somethin', but they don't cut nothin'." Even John Davidson of "State Fair" is skewed, singing "Oh, what a beautiful moron."
There are lots of untold stories associated with Broadway shows: The stars who didn't get the roles, the roles the stars have played in other productions, and a host of rival Broadway performances, past and present, against which actors can't help measuring themselves. That's not to mention the actors' own real-life soap operas.
And it's not necessary that audience members have seen the shows being spoofed, Alessandrini said.
"Many of the numbers are self explanatory," he said "The lyrics fill you in. And besides, most people, have heard about 'Phantom,' or 'CATS,' or 'A Chorus Line.' "
Forbidden Broadway
Strikes Back!Dates:Wednesday-Sept. 28
