Following a 10-week hiatus as required by its theatre license agreement with the 47th Street Theatre, Gerard Alessandrini's Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit resumes performances at the 47th Street Theatre (304 West 47 Street – between 8th and 9th Avenues). The first performance will be Monday, June 12th, at 8:15pm.
Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit won the 2005 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revue, poking fun at
Spamalot, The Light in the Piazza, Avenue Q and
Wicked, among others. Alessandrini has updated the musical spoof to reflect the Broadway hits and misses of 2006, including
Jersey Boys, Sweeney Todd, The Pajama Game, Julia Roberts and the upcoming Tony Awards.
Featured in the cast are: Jared Bradshaw,
Donna English,
Jeanne Montano and Michael West, with David Caldwell on piano.
Under the terms of their rental agreement with the 47th Street Theatre,
Forbidden Broadway must vacate the theatre for several weeks each spring to make way for the theatre's resident company, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, to play its season.
During the hiatus, the New York production of
Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit played an 11-week extended run in San Diego at The Theatre in Old Town where it received unanimous rave reviews and broke the box office record. Just prior to playing in San Diego, a touring company of
Forbidden Broadway played a 4-week engagement at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, where it received a nomination for an Elliott Norton Award for Best Visiting Production (the other nominees are
Spamalot and
Billy Crystal's
700 Sundays).
The show is created and written by
Gerard Alessandrini and is directed by Alessandrini and Phillip George. Costumes are by Tony Award winner Alvin Colt, with sets by Megan K. Halpern and lighting by Marc Janowitz.
Forbidden Broadway "has been an unstoppable force in New York theatre since 1982 when
Gerard Alessandrini created the first parody that lampooned the Broadway shows and stars of the day. It has been a favorite among theatre lovers as well as the Broadway stars themselves (
Carol Channing,
Kathleen Turner,
Bernadette Peters,
Tommy Tune,
Stephen Sondheim,
Cameron Mackintosh, and
Hal Prince, to name a few) who often stop by to laugh at themselves alongside their public," according to press notes. The revue has won numerous awards in its history, including the Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards.
The playing schedule for
Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit is as follows: Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:15pm and Sundays at 7:30pm, with matinees on Wednesdays at 2:30pm, Saturdays at 4:00pm, and Sundays at 3:30pm. Tickets are $65 on Saturday evenings and are $60 for all other performances. For tickets and information call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200. For Group Sales call (212) 840-5564. Visit
www.forbiddenbroadway.com for more information.
