Marty McFly (Danny Hayward, left) and Doc (Chris Collins-Pisano) are elated that their DeLorean can transport them to musicals past and future in Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song.
Broadway productions may be acclaimed or panned, long-running or doomed to early closure, launch a career or cancel it. Inevitably, though, they are easy targets for satirists. Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song, created, written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini, spares no barbs when humorously and semi-lovingly critiquing new Broadway hits, revivals, and their audience.
Jenny Lee Stern (center) as Shaina Taub in Suffs, Hayward (left), and Collins-Pisano march to protest a male-dominated Broadway.
The latest edition of Forbidden Broadway starts with a “Could this be real?” moment. An usher (Jenny Lee Stern), overdressed in a jacket and sequined skirt (Clue No. 1 that she’s acting), harangues a hapless ticket-holder (Chris Collins-Pisano), who is searching for his seat. The usher sings, “Sit Down, You’re Blocking the Aisle,” a parody of Stubby Kaye’s 1955 hit “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat” from Guys and Dolls. Despite the usher’s warning about cellphones, the ticket holder dangles his aloft, wanders in the aisles, and sings about getting a text (Clue No. 2—he’s acting).
This kicks off an evening of cabaret-like routines that justifiably elicit raucous laughter and poke fun at Broadway’s often absurdly capricious, glitzy and über-expensive spectacles, where anticipated success can yield to dismal failure in a heartbeat.
“There are enough scathing send-ups of Broadway hits for audiences to select their own favorites. ”
Quite a bit of the show’s acerbic humor is amplified by the exaggerated antics of Back to the Future: The Musical’s Marty McFly (Danny Hayward) and Doc (Collins-Pisano). With the help of Doc’s DeLorean and its time-warping capabilities, the duo can revert decades to Carousel, witness Stephen Sondheim’s nascent 1950s talent à la West Side Story, and even travel far into the future to rescue Sondheim from oblivion.
There are enough scathing send-ups of Broadway hits for audiences to select their own favorites. Subjectively, though, the most sidesplitting humor emanates from the Lincoln Center sketch, which mocks that arts hub’s shows, patrons and snob appeal. When the stage’s Mylar curtains separate, they reveal a backdrop of Lincoln Center venues —the fountain, the theaters, the Metropolitan Opera and others.
The actors, attired in haute couture, alternate singing stanzas:
Lincoln Center is the mentor and inventor of high art
Filled with beauty it’s your duty to be snooty and prove that you’re smart
See a shady My Fair Lady that Wayne Brady liked a lot
South Pacific was terrific not horrific like Camelot.
(And to the sound of a waltz from Swan Lake):
Lincoln Center is the center of miscasting famous stars
In our quest to be inventive we’ll fly names in from Venus and Mars.
Mary Todd Lincoln (Collins-Pisano, left) envies the fame of Shaina Taub (Stern). Photographs by Carol Rosegg.
The ensemble—Collins-Pisano, Stern, Hayward, and Nicole Vanessa Ortiz—are as musically versatile and comically gifted as any Tony winners. Ortiz shines as Audra McDonald in a scathingly funny sketch that both underscores and pokes fun at the range of McDonald’s vocal and acting talents. Similarly, Collins-Pisano, cross-dressed as Mary Todd Lincoln, takes pot shots at Stern’s Shaina Taub for Suffs and her other successes. He sings, “Now here’s a girl who wants my job … Here’s Shaina Taub, the Lin-Manuel of New Broadway.”
Aided by Gerry McIntyre’s brilliant choreography and a bevy of rapid-change costumes (Dustin Cross), hairdos and wigs (Ian Joseph), these multitalented actors are transformed into stars of the longest-running, most revered musicals, from Cats to Wicked, back and forth in time. As an Off-Broadway satire (the cast repeatedly emphasizes not on Broadway), this group can out-roast, out-sing and out-dance the best of Broadway. The latter includes a hilarious faux tap-dance number, in synch with recorded tapping. Then, when you think you’ve seen it all, Jenny Lee Stern (who is clearly not an ingenue), clad in a chartreuse, sequined outfit, performs a full split on the floor.
Glenn Bassett’s “pop” colored sets, DeLorean prop, and Back to the Future backdrop propel the show’s pace and contribute to the feeling that it’s in perpetual motion, with no respite from one musical mockery to another. This isn’t a negative, but rather testimony to the director’s, actors’, crew’s and musical director Fred Barton’s ability to segue smoothly between time frames and shows. Lighting and sound by Joan Racho-Jansen and Andy Evan Cohen, respectively, support this segue, and especially complement the Back to the Future scenes.
Merrily We Stole a Song would not resonate or flow as well if it were not for the musical glue that binds together this superb comedic repertoire, which lovingly, and temporarily, removes Broadway from its pedestal.
Gerard Alessandrini’s Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song runs at Theater 555 (555 W. 42nd St.) through Jan. 5. Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday and Monday and 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Matinees are at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, or to purchase tickets, call the box office at (646) 410-2277 or visit todaytix.com/nyc/shows/39958-forbidden-broadway-merrily-we-stole-a-song.
Creator/Writer/Director: Gerard Alessandrini
Musical Director: Fred Barton
Choreographer: Gerry McIntyre
Set Designer: Glenn Bassett
Lighting Designer: Joan Racho-Jansen
Costume Design: Dustin Cross
Sound Designer: Andy Evan Cohen
Hair & Wig Designer: Ian Joseph
