Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act

Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act is the fifth incarnation of Gerard Alessandrini

Gerard Alessandrini

Gerard Alessandrini is an American playwright, parodist, actor and theatre director best known for creating the award-winning off-Broadway musical theatre parody revue Forbidden Broadway...

's Forbidden Broadway
Forbidden Broadway
Forbidden Broadway is an Off-Broadway satirical revue conceived, written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini. The original version of the revue opened on January 15, 1982 at Palsson's Supper Club in New York City and ran for 2,332 performances. Alessandrini has rewritten the show over a dozen...

, his popular off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

musical revue spoofing "the best of Broadway". All the parody lyrics were written (as always) by Gerard Alessandrini. This version was co-directed by Mr. Alessandrini and his long time collaborator Phillip George. Mr. George had up till then only been credited with "Musical Staging" and as "Assistant Director". Phillip George also contributed many of the more successful ideas and dialogue sketches to the more recent Forbidden Broadway editions. The show played in the basement of Ellen's Stardust Diner, and the album is the fifth volume in the series. Because it features none of the original 1982 Forbidden Broadway cast members, it is labeled "The Unoriginal Cast Recording". It was recorded in December 1998 and released in 1999.

The leading premise of the show and album is that, like Times Square

Times Square

Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...

, FB should drop its raunchy demeanor and "clean up" its parodies. Naturally, the cast fails spectacularly, meanwhile spoofing new shows like Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...

, The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...

, Ragtime
Ragtime (musical)
Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty.Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in...

, Titanic
Titanic (musical)
Titanic is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone that opened on Broadway in 1997. It won five Tony Awards including the award for Best Musical...

, Jekyll and Hyde, and Footloose
Footloose (musical)
Footloose is a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film of the same name. The music is by Tom Snow , the lyrics by Dean Pitchford , and the book by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie.-Act 1:...

. They also take stabs at personalities like Rudolph Giuliani, Ann Miller

Ann Miller

Johnnie Lucille Collier, better known as Ann Miller was an American singer, dancer and actress.-Early life:...

, Julie Taymor

Julie Taymor

Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...

, Bebe Neuwirth

Bebe Neuwirth

Beatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth is an American actress, singer and dancer. She has worked in television and is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Crane's wife , on both the TV sitcom Cheers , and its spin-off Frasier...

, and Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...

Cast

The cast members featured on the album and that starred in Cleans Up Its Act when it first opened are listed below:

Bryan Batt
Bryan Batt
Bryan Batt is an American actor best known for his role in the AMC series Mad Men as Salvatore Romano, an art director for the Sterling Cooper agency. Primarily a theater actor, he has had a number of starring roles in movies and television as well...

*
Lori Hammel
Edward Staudenmayer
Kristine Zbornik

featured on other FB albums

Tracks

The musical numbers, with title, original song, and original composers listed, that are featured on the album are listed below:

A Jolly Holiday With Rudy ("Jolly Holiday
Jolly Holiday
"Jolly Holiday" is a song from Walt Disney's film Mary Poppins. It was composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The song is sung in the film by Bert and Mary in the pastel fantasy sequence before reaching the carousel...

")
Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act! ("Another Op'nin, Another Show"),
Chicago - Glosse Fosse ("Razzle Dazzle")
Footloose - Too Cute ("Footloose
Footloose (song)
"Footloose" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins. It was released in January 1984 as the first of two single by Loggins from the 1984 film of the same name. The song spent three weeks at number one, March 31—April 14, 1984 on the U.S. Billboard...

")
The Beauty Queen of Leenane ("How Are Things in Glocca Morra?
How Are Things in Glocca Morra?
"How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" is a popular song about a fictional village in Ireland.The music was composed by Burton Lane and the lyrics written by E. Y. Harburg. The song was published in 1946 and introduced in the 1947 musical Finian's Rainbow. There is no actual Glocca Morra in Ireland...

")
The Lion King Segment: The Circle Of Mice ("Circle of Life
Circle of Life
The song was re-recorded in 2003 by the Disney Channel Circle of Stars, a group of actors and actresses who have appeared in Disney Channel television series and original movies...

"), Julie Taymor And Her Puppets ("The Lonely Goatherd
The Lonely Goatherd
"The Lonely Goatherd" is a show tune from the musical The Sound of Music that makes use of yodelling.This song tells the whimsical story of a goatherd whose yodelling is heard from far off and by passers-by, until he falls in love with a girl who wears a pale-pink coat, with her mother joining in...

"), Can You Feel The Pain Tonight? ("Can You Feel the Love Tonight
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
250px|thumb|right|Simba and Nala embrace during the "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" sequence."Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated film, The Lion King, composed by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice. It was described by Don Hahn , Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff as...

")
Andrew Lloyd Webber Superstar ("Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Memory")
Titanic - The Musical: In Every Season ("In Every Age"), Ship Of Air "(There She Is)", The Reviews Are Broadcast ("The Night Is Alive"), Bottom ("Autumn"), There's A Movie Going On ("My Heart Will Go On
My Heart Will Go On
"My Heart Will Go On" is the theme song/love theme of the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic. With music by James Horner, lyrics by Will Jennings, and production by Simon Franglen, James Horner and Walter Afanasieff ,, it was recorded by Céline Dion...

")
More Miserable - Ten Years More ("One Day More")
Bernadette Peters In Annie Get Your Gun ("There's No Business Like Show Business")
Swan Lake (various themes from the ballet)
Ann Miller - I'm Still Weird ("I'm Still Here")
Jekyll And Hyde: ("Murder-Murder", "No one Knows Who I Am", "This Is My Key Change")
Ragtime Segment
Super-Frantic-Hyper-Active-Self-Indulgent-Mandy (Mandy Patinkin in Mamoloshen- Hava Nagila, Dreidel and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is an English word, with 34 letters, that was in the song with the same title in the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins. The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke...

)
Cabaret Segment (Wilkommen and Cabaret)
The Sound Of Music In Cabaret
Finale - Find Mary Martin ("Climb Ev'ry Mountain
Climb Ev'ry Mountain
"Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Here it is sung at the close of the first act by the Mother Abbess...

")
Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act! - Encore
Bonus Track - Epilogue ("New Music")

Cast

Tracks

See also