‘Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song’ best spoof yet

‘FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG’: Chris Collins-Pisano & Jenny Lee Stern. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG
Created, written & directed by Gerard Alessandrini
Choreography by Gerry McIntyre
Music direction by Fred Barton
Through January 5, 2025
Theater 555
555 W. 42nd St.
https://www.forbiddenbroadway.nyc/

By Scott Harrah

It has been five long years since the last installment of Forbidden Broadway played the New York stage. For those unfamiliar, Gerard Alessandrini’s Forbidden Broadway is a beloved farcical franchise of theatrical lampooning. The latest iteration, Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song, is long overdue. It is perhaps one of Mr. Alessandrini’s funniest and most scathing shows yet. The show jabs the satirical needle into the latest crop of Broadway shows. There is a definite “meta” thrill of insider humor if one has seen most of the productions being parodied. However, Merrily We Stole a Song features razor-sharp performances, goofy sight gags and crisp vocals and will, therefore, be lots of fun even for people who have not seen anything on Broadway the past season.

Nearly all of Broadway’s current biggest hits are all roasted and parodied with relentless glee, from the mega-successful revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along to the musical adaptation of Back to the Future to this summer’s sensational hit Oh, Mary! Included are parodies of Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone and Ben Platt.

& Juliet and Cabaret

One of the funniest vignettes is the parody of Cabaret. It starts out with Danny Hayward portraying the venerable Joel Grey in the original 1966 production in which he starred as the emcee. He sings the classic “Wilkomen” while a cabaret girl (Jenny Lee Stern) dances next to him. He says to the audience, “Ladies, gentlemen, and suckers who have paid six hundred dollars a seat. You there in the ring side table, do you like all those sweaty butts in your face?”

Next, Ms. Stern tears his costume. He morphs into Alan Cumming, who performed in two revivals of the Kander and Ebb classic. All of a sudden, the cabaret girl tears the emcee’s costume again. He morphs into Eddie Redmayne, the British actor who was universally panned by critics for his lackluster performance in the 2024 revival. Mr. Hayward impersonates Mr. Redmayne as the grotesque caricature he is in the new production. “Vile homely actors are stranger/I put this classic in danger,” he sings. “I’m Eddie Redmayne/And I have no charm/I will repulse you/Sniff my underarm and lick it!”

Nicole Vanessa Ortiz skewers the jukebox Shakespeare-themed musical & Juliet with the hilarious “& Juliet/Sore,” sung to the tune of Katy Perry’s “Roar.”  She sings, “I sing like I’m on fire (tiger?)/Like I’m a one-woman choir/Like my head’s exploding/I yell till my throat is sore.”

The Great Gatsby, Hell’s Kitchen & Back to the Future

Other highlights include “Great Gatsby for Dummies,” with Mr. Hayward, Ms. Ortiz and Chris Collins-Pisano mocking the current Broadway musical, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, starring Jeremy Jordan.

Ms. Ortiz and Ms. Stern portray Alicia Keys and her piano teacher in a delightful lampoon of the Broadway smash Hell’s Kitchen in the number “Hell’s Kitchen and Alicia’s Piano Lesson.” The song points out the factual inaccuracies of the musical. Ms. Ortiz sings “this show’s a big liar” to the tune of “This Girl is On Fire.” Meanwhile, Ms. Stern adds additional snark by saying she’s choking on all the dust from “disintegrating actors at Manhattan Plaza,” the affordable-housing project that is the setting for the story.

The Back to the Future musical adaptation is wonderfully eviscerated in three songs, “Back to the Future Part 1,” “Power of Math,” and “Back to Back to the Future,” featuring Mr. Collins-Pisano, Mr. Hayward in all three and Ms. Stern in two songs. The same three actors team up to ridicule The Outsiders in “The Outdated,” which one characters describes as “West Side Story plus Grease.”

There is even a clever song poking fun at Lincoln Center, trashing everything highbrow from the opera and ballet to such flop revivals as Camelot.

“Ev’ry season at the Beaumont/There’s a mo-ment you will cringe/Bartlett Sher will gladly dare/Kill any classic when he’s on a binge,” they sing.

Gypsy, Suffs & Oh, Mary!

Other hysterical highlights include Ms. Ortiz portraying six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald singing about her upcoming starring role in the new revival of Gypsy. The song, “Audra in Gypsy,” is viciously funny, and Ms. Ortiz’s vocals are lush and vibrant. Finally, Ms. Stern does a spot-on impersonation of Hillary Clinton as the producer of the women’s right-to-vote musical Suffs. The song gets in digs at that show’s creator Shaina Taub in “Shaina Taub: Cheap Marching/Finale.” Next, Ms. Stern’s Hillary Clinton introduces us to another First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln. Mr. Collins-Pisano sings a winning homage to Cole Escola’s nonbinary, non-factual portrayal of Abraham Lincoln’s wife in Oh, Mary!

Gerard Alessandrini has mounted different productions of Forbidden Broadway since 1982. The shows just get funnier and more caustic with each installment.  As creator, writer and director, Mr. Alessandrini gets outstanding performances from the entire cast. It is genuine treat and thrill to have a new Forbidden Broadway show back in New York to send up the current season. Merrily We Stole a Song delivers many badly needed laughs during these tense times.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published September 23, 2024
Reviewed at September 21, 2024 press performance

‘FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG’: Jenny Lee Stern & Danny Hayward. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

‘FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG’: Jenny Lee Stern, Chris Collins-Pisano & Danny Hayward. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

‘FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG’: Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, Danny Hayward & Chris Collins-Pisano. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

‘FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG’: Nicole Vanessa Ortiz. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

‘FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG’: Danny Hayward & Chris Collins-Pisano. Photo: Carol Rosegg.