BWW Reviews: FORBIDDEN BROADWAY Skewers the Great White Way at Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg

Despite heavy rain and fears of mice - er, ice, that is, though the Disney machine was skewered relentlessly throughout the evening - Forbidden Broadway played to a crowded house at the Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg on January 10. The "Alive and Kicking" touring troupe of the Off-Broadway revue famous for roasting, broiling, and filleting the Great White Way brought the area an night of Disney en brochette, Cameron Mackintosh flambé, and LES MISERABLES on the rocks.

Current cast members Scott Richard Foster, Jeanne Montano, Trisha Rapier, and Marcus Stevens, aided and abetted by musical director David Caldwell, brought the current version of Gerard Alessandrini's perennially popular Broadway bashing alive with the current and just-recently-closed crop of stage hits. First on the menu was the equally long-running CHICAGO: "It's the cheesy concert version of Gwen Verdon's last excursion," we're reminded, with a Bebe Neuwirth roasting complete with loud creaking noises every time their "Bebe" attempted a Fosse move. Immediately following that came an equally geriatric ANNIE, singing "I'm thirty years old, tomorrow..." to massive audience applause.

"Cameron Mackintosh," cunningly dressed as Inspector Javert, sang "these are a few of my souvenir things," reminding the audience that the producer's real success is his sales of show merchandise. The skewering of Mackintosh, combined with Disney and LES MIS, continued throughout the evening, to audience laughter and to no great surprise. JERSEY BOYS received its fair share of attack with "Sing Like A Girl", and MARY POPPINS, a Disney/Mackintosh giant, got its comeuppance with "Practically Putrid" and "Feed the Burbs": "Feed the burbs, that's what they say - tepid, vapid musicals pay!"

AVENUE Q, THE LION KING, and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS went under the knife with "You've Gotta Have A Puppet" (a spoof of "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" from GYPSY). The only question that could be asked of the lament that Modern Stage hits - even Disney ones sometimes - seem to require puppetry was, "where's War Horse?" How that one was overlooked in the act is a mystery, as so little else was spared.

Current performer Sarah Brightman, and the late, great Ethel Merman both had stage time, both with deafening volume, while the actors following Michael Crawford in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (what, you thought Andrew Lloyd-Webber would be spared?) were skewered on auto-tuning.

LES MISERABLES is one of the lengthiest musicals around, and therefore it was only fair that it should be the longest roasting of the evening. Nothing was sacred, from song keys to show length, and among the greatest audience approval was the poking at "I Dreamed A Dream" and at the general angst level of the show: "there was a time when shows were fun". Concluding with "One Tour More," the act brought the show to intermission.

The second half opened with an assassination of THE LION KING, with costuming as massive, or even more so, than the LES MIS spoof, and a poke at the giant headdresses of the show, along with the Disney skewer of "Circle of Mice".

Curly from OKLAHOMA battled Yoko Ono over the jukebox musical trend taking over Broadway (in her case, it was the not-so-huge-success of LENNON, over which Yoko Ono held nearly dictatorial control) - the jukebox skewering was taken up again with a hit on ROCK OF AGES (including "We built this city on NASCAR shows").

ONCE received a less-than-genteel roasting, complete with ocarina and pennywhistle, with a side shot at the musicals, including jukebox shows (MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, anyone?), requiring that the performers be the triple-threats of actor, singer, and musician. WICKED received its due with "Defying Subtlety", and the show closed with a particularly thorough grilling of Stone and Parker, creators of "South Park," and BOOK OF MORMON.

But perhaps the most-appreciated skit, to those audience members who have suffered enough through the original problem, was the show's Mandy Patinkin roast. Patinkin may be an easy target - how long will he stay on "Homeland," one wonders - but he's difficult to impersonate well. This Patinkin was scarily realistic, including the rendition of Jewish and Yiddish folk music, from his recent performances, with full Mandy Patinkin treatment. The delivery of "Dreidel" will likely never be forgotten by anyone who laughed until they cried at the dead-on treatment of Patinkin's song-styling.

For more information on Forbidden Broadway, check their website at forbiddenbroadway.com. The Majestic Theatre production schedule is available at www.gettysburgmajestic.org.

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