Immanuel Houston (left) plays Billy Porter, and Chris Collins-Pisano is Lin-Manuel Miranda in a skit from Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation.
It has been five years since the last edition of Forbidden Broadway, titled Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging. (It always did.) The long hiatus, however, hasn’t dulled the ruthlessness of Gerard Alessandrini, the Drama Desk–winning lyricist and director who satirizes a range of theater shows and foibles, often using classic show music with his own deft lyrics. And he has probably never been more ruthless than in Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation. Smart, vicious and superbly cast, it’s sublime.
As usual, Alessandrini’s prime objects for roasting are the individual shows. This time he has his sights on Moulin Rouge, Hadestown, Waitress, Frozen, Dear Evan Hansen, The Ferryman, Ain’t Too Proud, and Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish and Oklahoma!—all worthy targets. His lyrics are delicious, and they often connect a new show to an old one in a way that leaves one thinking, “How did he do that?” For instance, he uses Stephen Sondheim’s “The Worst Pies in London” in an early segment about advice to tourists visiting the Great White Way:
Why don’t you go to Waitress
Although it’s flawed?
The worst pies on Broadway
Since Sweeney Todd.
Collins-Pisano plays Bob Fosse with Jenny Stern as Gwen Verdon in a takeoff on Fosse/Verdon.
This time there are five performers, two men, two women, and an adolescent Joshua Turchin, who takes the role in one number of a Dear Evan Hansen replacement. When someone asks: “What’s the matter with you? Can’t you act like a normal male ingénue?”, his response is “Oh sorry, I could, but if I play a totally maladjusted, dyslexic, introverted, self-loathing teenager, the general public will relate to me more.” It’s not necessary to have seen Dear Evan Hansen to know that the character is a cringeworthy cocktail of angst.
In addition to commentary on audiences, tourists, marketers and producers, Forbidden Broadway revues always find a way to pull in an impersonation of a great female star, one that’s dearly departed or past her prime. Bernadette Peters, Jennifer Holiday and Bette Midler appear in a cute bit, but it’s the almost inevitable appearance of Judy Garland (Jenny Stern) that’s a big surprise. Garland has been done so often that it might seem another sketch couldn’t be fresh, but the song she delivers, set to the music of “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart,” roasts Renee Zellweger, who plays her in the film Judy. It’s one of the highlights of the entire revue:
Dear movie industry
Why do you torture me
With films you claim are “fine art”?
Most ev’ry year I see
Some B-star playing me
Zellwegger smells in my part
Stern is terrific and belts out the song with ease. Note, too, the way the first line gives the measure of Alessandrini’s knowledge. Cast as the opening of a letter, it echoes Garland’s “Dear Mr. Gable,” the introduction to “You Made Me Love You” that she sang in Broadway Melody of 1938.
Stern is also half of another gem: the HBO series Fosse/Verdon, with Chris Collins-Pisano as Fosse. They not only sing smart lyrics (to melodies from Damn Yankees) but show off some high kicks.
Two lost stars
From the old golden age
We burned up the stage
And burnt out each other…
Aline Mayagoitia plays the Ice Princess in the revue. Photographs by Carol Rosegg.
Aline Mayagoitia, on the other hand, is required to be less emotive as the Ice Princess in Frozen, and her deadpan is just as funny:
Should you see this show?
Rip up your ticket and let it go!
Overblown!
Overblown!
Everyone gets a chance to shine with both vocals and comedy. Immanuel Houston plays André De Shields in “Upside Down Hadestown,” Jeremy Pope in Ain’t Too Proud and Billy Porter wearing a signature over-the-top outfit. Turchin, along with playing expected juveniles like Harry Potter, has a drag bit as Bette Midler.
There are other delights: “Brush Up Your Yiddish” (a foray to Off-Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish) and “Tootsie,” to “Toot-toot-tootsie, Goodbye,” of course.
Dustin Cross has provided splendid costumes, and longtime Alessandrini collaborator Fred Barton is at the piano. For anyone interested in musical theater in 2019, Forbidden Broadway has the pulse of it.
Near the end, Alessandrini tackles the grim revival of Oklahoma!, and if you thought you had no laughter left, you’d better be prepared. As “Aunt Testa” says: “You oughta have figgered out by now we are livin’ in the era of turning cheery Broadway classic musicals inside out so we can see the ugly underbelly of American values.” The result is a brutally hilarious Woke-lahoma! The characters may sing, “Oh! what a mis’rable mornin’/Oh! what a terrible day,” but by the end of this revue you’re bound to disagree.
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation runs through Jan. 5 at the Triad Theatre. For times, tickets and information, visit the box office at 158 West 72nd St. (between Broadway and Columbus), call (212) 279-4200, or visit triadnyc.com.
