New Edition of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY to 'Come Out Swinging!' at the Davenport, 3/17

Gerard Alessandrini's Forbidden Broadway returned to New York in February at the newly refurbished Davenport Theatre (354 W. 45th Street, Between 8th and 9th Avenues) with Forbidden Broadway: Alive and STILL Kicking. As BroadwayWorld previously reported, over the course of the spring, Alessandrini had planned on adding new material to reflect the season's openings. Now, the time as come to unveil the new edition, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY COMES OUT SWINGING! According to The New York Times, this version will begin performances March 17.

Alessandrini told the Times: "We're having a particularly fun time with this one, because the edition is being created as the season unfolds, and the show is changing nightly. We're going to have our opening night less than a week after the Tony nominations are announced, so it's a very exciting time to be putting this together."

The edition is created and written by Gerard Alessandrini, directed by Phillip George and Alessandrini, with musical direction by David Caldwell. It will take jabs at many recent shows, as well as this season's debuts, including Aladdin, Bullets Over Broadway, Cabaret, Kinky Boots, Les Miserables, Matilda, Motown, Pippin, Rocky, The Bridges of Madison County, and NBC's The Sound of Music Live!

Forbidden Broadway has been an unstoppable force in theatre since 1982, when Gerard Alessandrini created the first edition 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, Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Stephen Sondheim, Raul Esparza, Tyne Daly, Christine Ebersole, Bernadette Peters, Whoopi Goldberg, Mike Nichols, and Hal Prince, to name a few) who often stop by to laugh at themselves alongside the public. Forbidden Broadway has won numerous awards in its history including a Special Tony® Award as well as Drama Critics' Circle, Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards. Last season's edition was named to Time Magazine's 10 Best of the Year, and received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Musical Revue. A theatrical institution, Forbidden Broadway has received national and international notoriety having performed in over 200 US cities as well as engagements in Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and London's Menier Chocolate Factory.

Gerard Alessandrini (Creator, Writer & Director) is best known for writing and directing all the editions of Forbidden Broadway and Forbidden Hollywood in New York, Los Angeles, and London and around the world. He was also a member of the original cast of Forbidden Broadway. Gerard is from Needham, Massachusetts and the Boston area, where he graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music. In 1982, he created Forbidden Broadway, which has spawned 21 editions, 9 cast albums and a record-breaking 32-year- run in New York. Television credits include writing comedy specials for Bob Hope and Angela Lansbury on NBC, Carol Burnett on CBS and "Masterpiece Tonight," a satirical revue saluting "Masterpiece Theatre" on PBS. He can be heard on four of the eight FB cast albums and on the soundtracks of Disney's Aladdin & Pocahontas. Directing credits include many corporate industrials and regional musicals, including a production of Maury Yeston's musical In the Beginning. Gerard also co-directed a revival of Irving Berlin's final musical Mr. President, which he updated & "politically corrected." Gerard is the recipient of an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Drama League and three Drama Desk Awards for Best Lyrics for Forbidden Broadway. He received the 2006 Tony® Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. Most recently his Madame X: The Musical won acclaim and multiple awards at the 2011 NYMF Festival; his holiday extravaganza The Nutcracker and I, written with Peter Brash was a smash at the George Street Theatre, and he is currently collaborating with Paul Mazursky and Bill Conti on a musical version of Mr. Mazursky's film Moon Over Parador.

Phillip George (Director) is a director and writer. As director Off-Broadway: Shout!, The Road to Qatar (York Theatre Company), Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab, Forbidden Broadway SVU, Forbidden Hollywood, Whoop-Dee-Doo (Drama Desk Award, Best Musical Revue), Forbidden Broadway Twentieth Anniversary Edition, and many other editions of this infamous revue series. Along the way, Forbidden Broadway was also honored with a special Tony for long time achievement. He has also directed musicals in London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, etc., with Forbidden Broadway transferring to the West End. With his longstanding collaborator Peter Morris, Phill also wrote Frankly Scarlett, which played at the Kings Head Theatre in London. In addition to his directing assignments, he is also one of the writers of High Hair and Jalapenos, which skewers all things Texas and is currently preparing for the fifth edition. When not directing and writing, Phill is on the staff of the American Musical and Dramatics Academy where he passes on some of the wisdom he acquired along the way.

David Caldwell (Music Director) has been the music director of Forbidden Broadway since 2004. He composed music and lyrics for All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and Uh-Oh Here Comes Christmas, both based on the writing of Robert Fulghum. He also composed music for Fulghum's novel Third Wish.He conducted the American premiere of Stephen Schwartz's Children of Eden. He recently music-directed two shows in China, with Inner Mongolian authors and casts. He arranged and orchestrated Marvin Hamlisch's new song "I'm Really Dancing" for Career Transitions for Dancers' 25th Anniversary Gala, featuring Angela Lansbury, Chita Rivera and Bebe Neuwirth. His new show, Gotta Getta Girl, was featured in the NYMF Reading Series. He is interviewed at length in Oliver Sacks' book about music and the brain, Musicophilia.