Forbidden Broadway (Play)

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    ‘Forbidden Broadway’ Scraps Summer Broadway Run, Citing Crowded Season

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    The parody show was scheduled to begin performances in July at the Helen Hayes Theater.In a sign that there are not enough investors and ticket buyers to sustain all of the Broadway shows now onstage and in the works, the producers of “Forbidden Broadway” said Friday that they were canceling a planned summer run.The scrapped production, “Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song,” was announced in February and was to be the first Broadway venture for the satirical revue, which has been performed periodically since 1982, mostly Off Broadway but also on tour. The show, consisting of comedic sketches that parody Broadway hits (and misses), has been frequently rewritten to remain reasonably timely and topical; the Broadway run was to feature a number of Sondheim spoofs, reflecting the heightened interest in his work since his death.In a statement, the producers, Ryan Bogner, Victoria Lang and Tracey Stroock McFarland, called the move a postponement, and cited the volume of offerings on Broadway — there are currently 36 shows running, 12 of which opened in a nine-day stretch before the Tony-eligibility season ended Thursday night.“The Broadway landscape is enormously crowded at this moment,” the producers’ statement said, “and while we adore Forbidden Broadway, we are disappointed that the show will not open at the Hayes on Broadway this summer.”The show, written by Gerard Alessandrini, was to begin previews July 15 and to open Aug. 5 at the Helen Hayes Theater, and was to be capitalized for $3.2 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is not clear if the producers had successfully raised all that money, and ticket sales, which began earlier this month, had been slow.“Without getting into the details of the financials or sales, it is self evident by looking at the current offerings on Broadway and their sales that in this incredibly crowded environment without recent precedent, the title would not have been served by launching at this time,” the producers said in a written answer to questions about the show’s economics.This is the second show to cancel a Broadway production this year; in February, the producers of a planned run of Rob Madge’s “My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)” announced that they were postponing that production less than three weeks before previews were to begin.As for Madge, the performer is planning to take “My Son’s a Queer” back to the Edinburgh Fringe, this summer. But first, next month Madge is planning a show in London, reflecting on the Broadway disappointment. The title, of course, is “Regards to Broadway.” More

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      Forbidden No More: ‘Forbidden Broadway,’ Scrappy Spoof, Bound for Broadway

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      The long-running parody show, which has been staged in New York and on tour, will open this summer at the Hayes Theater.For more than four decades, “Forbidden Broadway” has lovingly mocked the songs, stories and stars of Broadway from afar — in performance spaces at bars or diners as well as in theaters in New York and beyond.This summer, the show will for the first time be staged in the belly of the beast: on Broadway. A version of the long-running, oft-altered revue, now titled “Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song,” is planning to begin previews July 29 and to open Aug. 15 at the Hayes Theater.“Everything else is getting bigger, so why not ‘Forbidden Broadway’?” said Gerard Alessandrini, the show’s creator and author. “I haven’t done a whole new edition of ‘Forbidden Broadway’ since before Covid, so I thought this would be a good time to come back — we need to laugh more, and with all the activity on Broadway, there will be plenty of good targets.”“Forbidden Broadway” is a satirical production, consisting mostly of melodies from well-known or currently running shows, rewritten with lyrics that mock something about the production or its artists. The audience’s basic familiarity with the material is crucial, so the show’s targets are often rotated to reflect whatever is most in the public eye.“Going to a ‘Forbidden Broadway’ is for me like sitting down and schmoozing with a friend who shares an obsession,” the critic Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times in 2019.The show has had some near-death experiences, but, at least so far, each hiatus has been followed by rewriting and rebirth.The subtitle of the Broadway version is a confession as well as an allusion to one of the season’s biggest hits, “Merrily We Roll Along,” which has a score by Stephen Sondheim. “Forbidden Broadway” has long parodied Sondheim works, and this iteration is expected to spoof not only “Merrily,” but also several other classics by the great composer, including “Sweeney Todd,” “Into the Woods” and “Company.” That doesn’t mean this season’s other offerings will be spared — a news release cites as possible examples “Hell’s Kitchen,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Back to the Future,” “The Notebook” and “Water for Elephants.”The plans to bring “Forbidden Broadway” to the big stage were previously reported by the newsletter Broadway Journal. The production, with four actors, a pianist and rotating guest stars, will be directed by Alessandrini, who created “Forbidden Broadway” in 1982. The producers are Broadway & Beyond Theatricals (Ryan Bogner, Victoria Lang and Tracey Stroock McFarland) in association with John Freedson and Harriet Yellin. More