Photo Flash: Artist Series Concerts Opens 2019 Venice Series With FORBIDDEN BROADWAY

Artists Series Concerts of Sarasota launches its 2019 Venice series season with "Forbidden Broadway," the long-running Off-Broadway musical revue where legends past and present meet with nimble satire in a hilarious roast of some of the theatre's greatest stars and songwriters, Sunday, January 27, 3:00 p.m., at the Venice Performing Arts Center, 1 Indian Way, Venice. The four-person parody, featuring a cast rich in Broadway and Off-Broadway experience, skewers such iconic shows as "Chicago," "Annie," "Les Miz," "The Lion King," and "Hamilton," and such celebrated performers as Liza Minelli, Carol Channing, Robert Goulet, and many more.

Tickets are $25 - $45 and are available online at www.artistseriesconcerts.org or by calling 941-306-1202, Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Student tickets for the concert, priced at $10, are available with current student ID at the door.

For more than 35 years, the talented writers and casts of "Forbidden Broadway" have lampooned half a century's worth of Broadway hits, picking up numerous awards and accolades along the way. The original version of "Forbidden Broadway" opened in January 1982, running for a marathon 2,332 performances. Since then the rapid-fire revue has been updated over a dozen times and has picked up nine Drama Desk awards and a special Tony among others, while giving work to more than 2,000 emerging actors, including a young Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington and Renée Zellweger.

The current cast includes "Forbidden Broadway" veterans Gina Kreiezmar, Kevin B. McGlynn, Jeanne Montano and William Selby. Area theater goers will recognize Selby from his appearances over the past couple of seasons with Florida Studio Theatre.

"No one can poke fun at show business quite like the actors and writers who live it every day," says Joseph Holt, artistic director of Artist Series Concerts. "Their skilled and mischievous insiders' perspective is a large part of the reason that 'Forbidden Broadway' is still going strong after all these years, and why a skewering by them has become a rite of passage for just about any Broadway show. Plus, it's just loads of fun! We guarantee audiences an afternoon of side-splitting laughs."

Artist Series Concerts' 2019 Venice series continues with the Melodica Men, the duo that has taken the Internet by storm with their masterful arrangement of classical hits for the zany melodica, half keyboard, half harmonica (February 19, 11 a.m., with luncheon, at the Plantation Golf and Country Club); My Three Sons Vocal Quartet, featuring Stephen Ditchfield and sons David, Michael and Nate (March 7, 6 p.m., with dinner, at the Plantation Golf and Country Club); Stan Kenton All Star Big Band, a seventeen-piece orchestra comprised of some of Florida's best jazz musicians, performing hits by the legendary composer and band leader (March 17, 3:00 p.m., Venice Performing Arts Center); "Piano Pizzazz Meets Fiddle Finesse" featuring pianist Brian Gurl and Sarasota Orchestra violinist Carlann Evans (March 26, 11 a.m., with luncheon, at the Plantation Golf and Country Club).

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