In this weekly feature, WCBS culture critic Jim Taylor shares 30 seconds with the theatre stars and upstarts of NYC. From Broadway to Off-off, Jim tracks down the talent and gets them to spill just enough for our collectively shortened attention spans.
For 30 years, Forbidden Broadway has sliced and diced the shows and the stars of the Great White Way; New York snark at its best. It went away for a while, it came back, and it’s leaving again at the end of the month. We spoke with creator/director Gerard Alessandrini and the cast of spot-on spoofers.
Gerald Allesandrini: The shows don’t come in as fast as they used to, so it’s nice to let a bunch of new shows accumulate before you do a new edition. And it is fun to spoof shows that we like — that I actually enjoy.
Jim Taylor: How about the people you spoof? Do they mind?
GA: I think a lot of people in theatre are very thick-skinned and so they have probably heard worse from critics. At least we rhyme and make it sound pretty!
JT: Ever wonder who’s out there in the audience?
Cast: Always, you never know who’s going to be out there.
JT: I mean really, what if Matthew Broderick and Bernadette Peters are out in the audience some night?
Cast: I would welcome it. I would love it. The cast of Once came. They had a great time. And so did we.
Forbidden Broadway begins its hiatus April 28th, so this is your last chance to see hilarious send-ups of Wicked, Newsies, Al Pacino, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and others.