Starring Whitney Allen, Susanne Blakeslee, David Engel and Larry Raben
May 1-17, 2009
Honorary Producer
Kathryn Baker Campbell
Associate Producer
Fred & Char Gamm
Joan Wells
Long Beach Unified School District's "ED TV"
interviews Paul Garman and the cast of
Forbidden Broadway
Susanne Blakeslee as Carol Channing
Loving what's on
'Forbidden Broadway'
By A.K. Whitney
From the beginning, the beauty of Gerard Alessandrini's "Forbidden Broadway" was not only that you didn't have to be completely hip to what's playing on the Great White Way to enjoy it, you could also see it many times and it would never be quite the same. Since premiering in 1982, the cabaret-style show, which took on Broadway's sacred cows - and turned them into delicious barbecue - updated itself regularly. That doesn't mean, however, that Mandy Patinkin and Liza Minelli were ever off the hook. They were just joined by the likes of Harry Potter and Frankie Valli, and the mocking went on for more than 2,000 performances. Click HERE to read more...
MTW favorites Larry Raben and David Engel
***CRITICS PICK***
Forbidden Broadway: Greatest Hits, Volume One
Reviewed by Les Spindle
Since 1982, creator-writer Gerard Alessandrini has raked Broadway over the coals with his annually updated Forbidden Broadway series, which ended its venerable Off-Broadway run in March. Musical Theatre West has tapped into Alessandrini's treasure trove of spoofs for L.A.'s first locally produced rendition. Rising to the occasion, director William Selby and ace music director–accompanist Michael Paternostro lead L.A.-based David Engel and Larry Raben and Forbidden vets Susanne Blakeslee and Whitney Allen in a riotously funny compilation, matching versatile performers with inspired material. Click HERE to read more...
CRITIC'S PICK
5 out of 5 Stars!
Forbidden Broadway review by Don Grigware
Parody must have bite to grab hold of an audience. Well, Forbidden Broadway has the incisors of a shark and the claws of a lion, and theatre folk just clammer to have their gods and divas dished and even devoured. The musical scenes are irreverently funny with a comic disclaimer at the beginning, but, hell, if the celebs can't take it, they don't belong in SHOW BIZ! Let's credit Gerard Alessandrini whose genius in writing scathing new lyrics to already well-known Broadway tunes has become legendary. And...Musical Theatre West's current production - the first volume, for them - is devilish, scrumptious and a helluva good show. Click HERE to read more...
"Can you feel the Pain Tonight?" from Disney's The Lion King
David Engel as Hairspray's Harvey Fierstein
Forbidden Broadway
Your favorite shows...Wicked, Les Miserables, Chicago, Annie, Cats, Joseph, The Phantom of the Opera.Your favorite stars...Liza, Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Michael Crawford...Nothing is sacred to the sharp wit and barbed satire from the creators of Forbidden Broadway...one of the longest running Off-Broadway hits of all time!
Behind the scenes at MTW's Forbidden Broadway
KFI's Bill Handel joins Forbidden Broadway Musical Director Michael Paternostro and cast members David Engel and Larry Raben backstage following Sunday's matinee.
Review: 'Forbidden Broadway' at Carpenter Performing Arts Center
By Charlotte Stoudt
Mandy Patinkin, watch out. Daniel Radcliffe, take cover (literally). The satirical revue “Forbidden Broadway” has come to Long Beach’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center, and it’s only just begun. Even the Wicked Witch of the West isn’t safe.
Gerard Alessandrini’s ever-evolving take-off on American musical theatre began in a supper club in 1982 and ran in New York for an astonishing 27 years, spawning international tours and a string of cast albums. With only four performers, a pianist, and no set, the show’s format is a cash-strapped artistic director’s dream. It’s also a terrific showcase for comic talent, and Larry Raben, an original cast member from “Forever Plaid,” is a standout in this Musical Theatre West. Click HERE to read more...
David Engel lampoons Phantom of the Opera
Making fun of Broadway's hits and stars
Feature Story By Al Rudis, Staff Writer
Bill Selby, top, has been involved with "Forbidden Broadway" since 1985. He's directing the Musical Theatre West version of the Broadway spoof. How do you spoof the Civil War? Bill Selby didn't have to do the whole war, but he was asked to stage a parody of a Broadway show with that name.
"They had a lot of slow-motion scenes, so we did a whole slapstick slow-motion thing where people were hitting each other in the head," he said. "And Abraham Lincoln would sing, `Boring, boring and pretentious.' (Selby sang the words over the telephone to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic.") That show came and went very fast." Click HERE to read more...
Whitney Allen as Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid
“Forbidden Broadway” –Witty Comedic Broadway Insights, All-Pro Singing & Dance, plus oodles of clever Tomfoolery
By: Joseph Sirota
“A night of witty comedic Broadway “unspoken secrets”, stirring singing & dance, plus oodles of sharply clever tom-foolery” – is how I’d sum up Music Theatre West’s (MTW’s) first production of the looooong-running off-Broadway phenom ““Forbidden Broadway”. If ever the old comic maxim “I Kid Because I Love” applied -- it’s in “Forbidden Broadway”. Rather than just heap praise on Broadway mega-hits and mega stars, then sing and dance their best showstoppers– why not serve up generous doses of tongue-in-cheek satire, seasoned with a bit of envy by fine, but not-quite-yet-“canonized” Musical-Comedy talents taking over? If “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, then this hilariously over-the-top imitation is TOUGH-LOVE personified. Click HERE to read more...
David Engel, Whitney Allen and Larry Raben spoof
Bob Fosse and Chicago
Susanne Blakeslee channels Barbra Streisand in MTW's production of Forbidden Broadway
