Forbidden Broadway - Interview with Gerard Alessandrini

Interview By: Carey Purcell
CareyPurcell@TheCinemaSource.com

When asked about his work, Gerard Alessandrini is modest.

“It’s nothing new,” he said of his now-famous musical parody, Forbidden Broadway. “People have been changing lyrics to favorite songs for millenniums.”

And, with Alessandrini’s continuous work, this tradition may continue for many more millenniums. The creator and author of the off-Broadway parody of the Great White Way has created a popular and successful show that has lasted for two decades and shows no signs of slowing down.

A roast of the current and past Broadway seasons, Forbidden Broadway parodies musicals, plays and the actors in them. Nothing is safe in this show - everything from the topics to the performances to the marketing is addressed.

Alessandrini is no stranger to the theatre world. He has been seeing shows his entire life. His first was Follies, which was trying out in Boston. “People were taken aback by it,” he said. “it was so rich and full of so many layers. It was tremendous – not only was the story great, but the staging was out of this world.”

Throughout his life, his standards have remained high. He said he appreciates theater that tells a solid story. “I like…when the songs are integrated, not superfluous,” he said. “I don’t like musicals when they stop a story they are telling to sing a gratuitous song. I like when the song tells the story.”

Forbidden Broadway began 25 years ago, with spoofs of Evita and Dreamgirls. Nine was in its original production then, and Rex Harrison was starring in a revival of My Fair Lady and Lauren Bacall was the star of Woman of the Year. The response, Alessandrini said, was enormous.

“No one had heard anything like this,” he said. “People were very tickled by it. It was Off-Broadway – you discovered it yourself. It was a very in thing to do.”

The show’s topics have spanned original productions like Rent, long-standing legends like Les Miserables, and revivals like Kiss Me Kate. The current show, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit examines some of the crimes committed on the Great White Way by criminals such as Harvey Feinstein, Disney and Yoko Ono.

“When I see a show, I’m not thinking at all how to spoof it,” Alessandrini said. “I have to pay for my own ticket anyway – if I pay a lot of money and feel ripped off, I feel the same anger that an audience member would feel. I go and enjoy it or not enjoy it, and I think, ‘We should do a parody of the show, because a lot of people have seen it. How can we do it? What’s funny about this show? What’s unique? How does it fit into the Broadway landscape? Is it a rehash? Is it part of a trend?’ When I find out how it fits, then I look for songs in the show that we can use.’”

Along with the shows themselves, Alessandrini is ...