‘Forbidden Broadway’ slays, strays & stumbles its way back into the limelight

It’s been more than 40 years since Gerard Alessandrini first satirized Broadway’s best. What’s old is new again — sort of — in his latest creation, Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song.

Alessandrini, credited with creating, writing, and directing the musical revue, leaves nearly no stone unturned in his quest to unearth seasons past and present. What he discovers may be of varying interest depending on the audience member’s theater knowledge. Forbidden Broadway has always juggled insider references with mainstream audiences, and this iteration is no different, but the versatile cast of four ensures there are plenty of laughs even if you don’t know what you’re laughing at. 

This edition’s name is lifted from the recent revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along — one of Broadway’s most famous flops that finally found success last year with the trifecta of Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez. 

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Alessandrini employs an adolescent Sondheim, the musical theater daddy of lyrical wit and complex musicality, as a time-traveling conduit (a la Back to the Future) to save Broadway, a loose framing device that comes and goes throughout the show’s breakneck 85 minutes. 

Thanks to ridiculous costumes (Dustin Cross) and wigs (Ian Joseph), and a whirlwind of offstage quick changes, Forbidden Broadway clips along with the hardest working fingers in show business, Fred Barton (who also serves as musical director), at the piano. 

Successful numbers include Danny Hayward’s Cabaret homage as his Emcee morphs from Joel Grey to Alan Cumming to Eddie Redmayne. Chris Collins-Pisano nails Ben Platt’s quickfire vibrato from the actor’s recent stint at the Palace Theatre, while Nicole Vanessa Ortiz pokes a broomstick at 37-year-old Cynthia Erivo’s casting as Elphaba, the famously green student at Shiz University. But it’s longtime Forbidden Broadway vet Jenny Lee Stern who steals the show with her spot-on impersonations of Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Shaina Taub, and even one of the Greasers from The Outsiders.

With more than two dozen numbers, not all of Forbidden Broadway tickles the funny bone, and Alessandrini’s cultural references could use a jolt to attract a new generation of theatergoers. 

While Hayward nails Jeremy Jordan’s angsty Jay Gatsby, the moment fails to take advantage of one of the most viral social media trends of last season: Dominique Kelly’s “New Money” choreography that inspired Broadway wannabees across the country.

@abigail_maybe pls forgive i am a strong mover not a dancer haha #greatgatsby #newmoney #musicaltheatre ♬ original sound – The Great Gatsby Musical

A nod to Lincoln Center needles the cultural institution’s stuffy legacy (although we’re obsessing over Jeanine Tesori’s new opera, Grounded, premiering this month) but lands as sleepy as Lincoln Center Theater’s recent revival of Camelot. 

Ask your parents about the A/V club from their high school days, and you’ll get a sense of the production’s use of projections. The upgrade from Forbidden Broadway’s intentional on-a-shoestring aesthetic does little to amplify the comedy, with the exception of an apocalyptic rending of Times Square, featuring a marquee for the Ozempic Theatre. 

Minor squabbles aside, Forbidden Broadway’s return reminds us that, for better or worse, there’s no business like show business. 

Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song, Theater 555, New York City. Performances through January 5, 2025.

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