Forbidden Broadway--The First and the Latest

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

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

Baby original cast album

This is the first Maltby and Shire musical in my Year, and I'm shocked that it has taken me this long to get to one. In the past, I've found their music fun and frothy, although I don't know that I've seen one of their shows live on stage. Baby may have been their biggest hit. At least its the show I most closely associate with them, without ever having heard a song from it. Actually, that's not true, I had heard Danny's song "I Chose Right" before, although I didn't know it was from Baby.

The ensemble songs are the best in this show--although none of the music is listenable. I particularly liked the women's trio "I Want it All." This would be very good in any kind of cabaret setting. The duet for the college-student couple has very clever lyrics. Liz Callaway (sorry, I've seem to have misspelled her name previously; I'll work to correct) sing her big Act I closer "The Story Goes On" very well. Also the song "Patterns" maybe the best song of the score--why was it cut from the Broadway incarnation of the show? It has the most poetic lyrics of the bunch.

One song that is in the show and I would cut if I were producing it is "The Ladies Sing their Songs." While I liked the a capella section of the song, the rest of it left me flat. And since it takes a chorus of women (okay 5) to sing it, why include it?

The opening sequence narrated by Kim Criswell sounds very funny; I wonder what it looked like on stage. I imagine the film-strip images from junior high sex education classes. I liked the voices of the six primary characters--particularly Martin Vidnovic.

Baby
Music by David Shire
Lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.
Book by Sybille Pearson
Opened in 1983
Cast: Liz Callaway, Todd Graff, Beth Fowler, James Congdon, Martin Vidnovic, Catherine Cox