It's a two-fer today. Two incarnations of the Forbidden Broadway franchise: the first album from 1983, and the latest 25th anniversary version from 2008. I figured, at a year into my listening project, I might know enough to get the jokes from these spoofs. Others may disagree about me knowing anything.
I was surprised that I had heard so few of the songs from the original 1983 album. After all, I was hot and heavy into musical theater at the time, and would have embraced anything that so effectively poked fun at the institution without doing anyone any harm. I had heard the "Don't Cry for me Barbra Streisand" and it was funny to think that 25 years ago, while everyone knew Patti LuPone wouldn't be asked to star in the movie version of Evita, no one had probably even heard of Madonna.
I had also heard the Dolly Levi sequence with its funny "Dolly is a Girl's Best Friend." I had no idea though that Chloe Webb was in the company of the show. I know her only from her television work. She sings well when asked, and mimics even better.
From the most recent version of the show is Rude Awakening. I laughed out loud at some of the lyrics pointed to recent shows such as Mary Poppins, Spring Awakening, and Little Mermaid. The satire in the Forbidden franchise seems to work best when pointed at a specific show, performer or kind of show. There are two songs on this album that poke fun at the tourist audiences that lap up shows like Curtains, while dismissing shows like Grey Gardens; I felt they were a little mean spirited, although if I were a New Yorker perhaps I would feel differently. Lord knows, I make enough jokes about the tourists in Chicago.
Forbidden Broadway
Opened in 1983
Music by anyone willing to not sue
Lyrics by Gerard Alessandrini
Cast: Chloe Webb, Gerard Alessandrini, Nora Mae Lyng, Bill Carmichael, Fred Barton
Opened in 1983
Music by anyone willing to not sue
Lyrics by Gerard Alessandrini
Cast: Chloe Webb, Gerard Alessandrini, Nora Mae Lyng, Bill Carmichael, Fred Barton
Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening
Opening in 2008
Music again by the non-litigious
Lyrics by Gerard Alessandrini
Cast: Jared Bradshaw, David Caldwell, Janet Dickinson, James Donegan, Valerie Fagan, Gina Kreiezmar
Opening in 2008
Music again by the non-litigious
Lyrics by Gerard Alessandrini
Cast: Jared Bradshaw, David Caldwell, Janet Dickinson, James Donegan, Valerie Fagan, Gina Kreiezmar
1 comment:
Just saw Forbidden Broadway in Portland. What a scream! I regret that I haven't seen many of the shows they parodied, so I wasn't as fully in the know as I might have been. But it was still awesome.
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