Forbidden Broadway

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Forbidden Broadway
Music	Various
Lyrics	Gerard Alessandrini
Book	Gerard Alessandrini
Based upon	Broadway parodies
Productions	1982 Off-Broadway

Forbidden Broadway is an Off-Broadway satirical revue created and written by Gerard Alessandrini and directed by Alessandrini and long-time collaborator Phillip George. It opened on January 15, 1982 at Palsson's Supper Club in New York City and ran for 2,332 performances.[1] It has subsequently been rewritten several times to include parodies of newer shows. In 2006, the show was honored with a special Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre. The current incarnation, Rude Awakening, is playing at the 47th Street Theatre in New York. It stars Jared Bradshaw, Janet Dickinson, Michael West and Valerie Fagan, with David Caldwell at the piano. The production won the Drama Desk Award for outstanding revue. A new cast recording was recorded October 18, 2007 and released on Janurary 22, 2008.

The show is a cabaret revue sharply spoofing show tunes, characters and plots of contemporary and current Broadway musicals. Forbidden Broadway has mocked popular shows like Wicked, Les Misérables, Annie Get Your Gun, Hairspray, The Lion King, The Music Man, Miss Saigon, and Rent. It also targets famous Broadway actors, writers, composers, directors, choreographers and producers, including Carol Channing, Bob Fosse, Elton John, Jennifer Holliday, Patti LuPone, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, Mandy Patinkin, Stephen Sondheim, Harvey Fierstein, Barbra Streisand and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Forbidden Broadway is a four-person show, with two men and two women that has run for over twenty-five years. Forbidden Broadway has released eight albums, as well as one entitled Forbidden Hollywood, a soundtrack of the show of the same title by Alessandrini. Like Forbidden Broadway, Forbidden Hollywood is made up of parodies, except that it targets movies rather than musicals. The New York and Los Angeles based companies of both "Forbidden" incarnations have served as a workshop for rising talent to hone their skills. Alumni include Jason Alexander, Brad Oscar, singer/impressionist Christine Pedi, actor Bryan Batt (of AMC's "Mad Men"), Spamalot's Michael McGrath, Chloe Webb (Sid and Nancy) Ed Staudenmayer(Fame Becomes Me), Barbara Walsh (Company, Ragtime) and many more.