Susanne Blakeslee as Carol Channing in Forbidden Broadway
By Cory Bilicko
Entertainment Writer
Before Saturday night’s performance of Forbidden Broadway: Greatest Hits, Volume One at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Musical Theatre West Executive Director Paul Garman addressed the full-house audience with the usual pre-show matters: appreciation of support during tough times, requests for donations, and announcements of upcoming shows.
One of those productions, he said, will be Rent, adding that that night’s audience “probably won’t like it” but their kids might.
Huh? Was this remark a deliberate attempt to use negative publicity for positive results? (If we tell them they won’t like it, will they wonder why and end up seeing it?)
Was it an overestimation (or underestimation) of the correlation between an audience’s collective age and their taste in live theatre? If that is the case, isn’t theatre all about (aside from entertaining) sharing stories that present a social perspective and provide a platform for cultural analysis?
Even if we view it for its pure entertainment value, why shouldn’t a teenager appreciate a classic like My Fair Lady and, likewise, an 80-year-old welcome the opportunity to get insights into the issues of contemporary New York youth dealing with AIDS and drug addiction? After all, when the curtain falls and the house lights come up, isn’t the Big Lesson that, behind our social masks, physical differences and disparate upbringings, we’re really all the same?
Besides, despite whatever age the audience appeared to be, they were there to see an installment of Forbidden Broadway, the Off-Broadway franchise that parodies current productions (shows like Rent) and stars of the Great White Way. Before we’d had a chance to scratch our heads for too long over whether his comment was more offensive to our advanced age or to the Pulitzer- and Tony-award winning play itself, four performers were onstage sending up the likes of Avenue Q, Phantom of the Opera and Jersey Boys with impressive vocal talent, spot-on impersonations and seamless costume changes.
One complaint I’d heard before seeing this performance was that it was sometimes a challenge to understand the words the actors were singing and that more enunciation might be helpful. There were a few instances of lyrical clarity being lost, but you try singing a Liza Minnelli or Carol Channing impression that captures the celebrity’s essence, vocal idiosyncrasies and bigger-than-life persona, complete with perfect comic timing, rapid-fire costume switch and enough virtuosic flair to single-handedly command the stage.
This edition of Forbidden, which is one of the longest running Off-Broadway shows ever, brings us a reworking of the Les Miserables song “On My Own” into “On My Phone,” in which a cast member passes all her downtime in the wings by texting on her iPhone.
“Can You Feel the Pain Tonight?” reworks Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from The Lion King, with actors sustaining injuries from their elaborate animal costumes.
With Michael Paternostro on piano stage left, Whitney Allen, Susanne Blakeslee, David Engel and Larry Raben zip (and unzip) swiftly through the numbers, proving that imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but parody is a real hoot.
You’ll probably like it, and so will your kids.
Forbidden Broadway continues through Sunday, May 17. Ticket prices range from $30 to $58 with special premium seating available for $66 to $78. Call the box office at (562) 856-1999 ext. 4.
