Read Online Forbidden Broadway: Behind the Mylar Curtain by Gerard Alessandrini, Michael Portantiere - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gerard Alessandrini, Michael Portantiere
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bring
along someone who's not a showbiz insider, so I can get another opinion.
While visiting my parents in Boston
in late 1989, 1 thought it might be fun to
bring my mother to see the out-of-town
tryout of Grand Hotel. We had lovely box
seats; that was a good thing, because
my mother's theatre etiquette was never
very good, and she'd often make comments during a show. As you might have
heard, Grand Hotel had a rough time in
Boston. My mother was rather confused
by the minimalist staging and by the
sets, which consisted largely of chairs
and not much else. When one of the
actors said, "People come, people go,
nothing ever happens at the Grand Hotel," she retorted: "People come, people
go, people move chairs." I immediately
put that line into Forbidden Broadway. I
mean, if you can't steal from your mother, who can you steal from?
Jeff Lyons, Susanne Blakeslee, Marilyn Pasekoff, and Herndon
Lackey in "Grim Hotel."
Susanne Blakeslee, Jeff Lyons (as Jerome Robbins), and
Bob Rogerson sing "Jerome, Jerome, a Helluva Guy!"
While our show was playing at Theatre
East, revivals were really taking hold on
Broadway. Guys and Dolls was a major revival of the early '90s, so big a hit that it was
almost like a new show. There was the "Teeny
Todd" take on Sweeney Todd at Circle in the
Square, and there was Gypsy with Tyne Daly.
Jerome Robbins' Broadway was a wonderful
show, but it smacked of an era that had gone
by. In the air, there was a general feeling of
"We don't know how to do great new shows,
so we'll just revive and revue the old ones."
Speaking of days gone by, Little Orphan
Annie was struggling to make a comeback:
Annie 2 tried to come in from out of town,
but failed in its first incarnation. A new version of the sequel came in later as Annie Warbucks, but it played Off-Broadway, not on. So
it seemed appropriate that we now had a new
and more durable spoof of Annie:
There were also some great revivals of straight plays at that time, such as Orpheus
Descending with Vanessa Redgrave. And there were some excellent London imports
of straight plays, like Lettice and Lovage with Maggie Smith.
City of Angels was a classy, wonderfully clever addition to Broadway. Of course, it
was itself a spoof or takeoff on films noir from the '40s, and I have since learned that it's nearly impossible to spoof a spoof. Also, City of Angels was very well written by
comedic genius Larry Gelbart (book), the great wordsmith David Zippel (lyrics), and
one of Broadway's all-time best composers, Cy Coleman. Being so well done, it was
impossible to top. (I had the same problem later with The Producers.) But City was one
of the few new book musicals of the '90s, so we had to take a crack at it. Our version
did get a few laughs, mainly because of the clever costumes, which were half black
and white, half color-an exaggeration of the premise of the real show.
Top: The original cast of Forbidden
Broadway: Gerard Alessandrini, Nora Mae
Lyng, Bill Carmichael, Chloe Webb, and
Fred Barton. Bottom: Gerard, Bill, and Nora
parody The Pirates of Penzance.
Top: Chloe, Bill, Nora, and Gerard spoof Fiddler on the
Roof. Bottom: Roxie Lucas as Mary Martin and Toni
DiBuono as Ethel Merman.
David B. McDonald, Michael McGrath,
Toni DiBuono, and Roxie Lucas:
Forbidden Broadway '88.
The British Invasion: Michael McGrath, David B.
McDonald, Toni DiBuono, and Roxie Lucas slam Les Miz.
Susanne Blakeslee, Herndon Lackey, Mary Denise
Bentley, and Jeff Lyons have a go at Miss-cast Saigon.
Clockise from top left: The tenthanniversary cast: Alix Korey, Patrick
Quinn, Leah Hocking, and Michael
McGrath; Christine Pedi, Brad Oscar,
Susanne Blakeslee, and Craig Wells:
Forbidden Broadway '93; Phillip George,
co-director of Forbidden Broadway.
Gerard with the cast of Forbidden Broadway 1991: Herndon Lackey (as "Swill
Rogers"), Susanne Blakeslee (in "The Secret Deodorant Garden"), Jeff Lyons (again
forced to play Lea
along someone who's not a showbiz insider, so I can get another opinion.
While visiting my parents in Boston
in late 1989, 1 thought it might be fun to
bring my mother to see the out-of-town
tryout of Grand Hotel. We had lovely box
seats; that was a good thing, because
my mother's theatre etiquette was never
very good, and she'd often make comments during a show. As you might have
heard, Grand Hotel had a rough time in
Boston. My mother was rather confused
by the minimalist staging and by the
sets, which consisted largely of chairs
and not much else. When one of the
actors said, "People come, people go,
nothing ever happens at the Grand Hotel," she retorted: "People come, people
go, people move chairs." I immediately
put that line into Forbidden Broadway. I
mean, if you can't steal from your mother, who can you steal from?
Jeff Lyons, Susanne Blakeslee, Marilyn Pasekoff, and Herndon
Lackey in "Grim Hotel."
Susanne Blakeslee, Jeff Lyons (as Jerome Robbins), and
Bob Rogerson sing "Jerome, Jerome, a Helluva Guy!"
While our show was playing at Theatre
East, revivals were really taking hold on
Broadway. Guys and Dolls was a major revival of the early '90s, so big a hit that it was
almost like a new show. There was the "Teeny
Todd" take on Sweeney Todd at Circle in the
Square, and there was Gypsy with Tyne Daly.
Jerome Robbins' Broadway was a wonderful
show, but it smacked of an era that had gone
by. In the air, there was a general feeling of
"We don't know how to do great new shows,
so we'll just revive and revue the old ones."
Speaking of days gone by, Little Orphan
Annie was struggling to make a comeback:
Annie 2 tried to come in from out of town,
but failed in its first incarnation. A new version of the sequel came in later as Annie Warbucks, but it played Off-Broadway, not on. So
it seemed appropriate that we now had a new
and more durable spoof of Annie:
There were also some great revivals of straight plays at that time, such as Orpheus
Descending with Vanessa Redgrave. And there were some excellent London imports
of straight plays, like Lettice and Lovage with Maggie Smith.
City of Angels was a classy, wonderfully clever addition to Broadway. Of course, it
was itself a spoof or takeoff on films noir from the '40s, and I have since learned that it's nearly impossible to spoof a spoof. Also, City of Angels was very well written by
comedic genius Larry Gelbart (book), the great wordsmith David Zippel (lyrics), and
one of Broadway's all-time best composers, Cy Coleman. Being so well done, it was
impossible to top. (I had the same problem later with The Producers.) But City was one
of the few new book musicals of the '90s, so we had to take a crack at it. Our version
did get a few laughs, mainly because of the clever costumes, which were half black
and white, half color-an exaggeration of the premise of the real show.
Top: The original cast of Forbidden
Broadway: Gerard Alessandrini, Nora Mae
Lyng, Bill Carmichael, Chloe Webb, and
Fred Barton. Bottom: Gerard, Bill, and Nora
parody The Pirates of Penzance.
Top: Chloe, Bill, Nora, and Gerard spoof Fiddler on the
Roof. Bottom: Roxie Lucas as Mary Martin and Toni
DiBuono as Ethel Merman.
David B. McDonald, Michael McGrath,
Toni DiBuono, and Roxie Lucas:
Forbidden Broadway '88.
The British Invasion: Michael McGrath, David B.
McDonald, Toni DiBuono, and Roxie Lucas slam Les Miz.
Susanne Blakeslee, Herndon Lackey, Mary Denise
Bentley, and Jeff Lyons have a go at Miss-cast Saigon.
Clockise from top left: The tenthanniversary cast: Alix Korey, Patrick
Quinn, Leah Hocking, and Michael
McGrath; Christine Pedi, Brad Oscar,
Susanne Blakeslee, and Craig Wells:
Forbidden Broadway '93; Phillip George,
co-director of Forbidden Broadway.
Gerard with the cast of Forbidden Broadway 1991: Herndon Lackey (as "Swill
Rogers"), Susanne Blakeslee (in "The Secret Deodorant Garden"), Jeff Lyons (again
forced to play Lea
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