Gerard Alessandrini
Encyclopedia
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
. He is the recipient of Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre
, an Obie Award
, four Drama Desk Award
s (including the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics
and the Drama Desk Special Award
), an Outer Critics Circle Award
, and two Lucille Lortel
Awards, as well as the Drama League Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
an Needham
. After graduating from the Boston Conservatory of Music, he moved to New York City
. As a young actor in summer stock
, regional theater and dinner theater
, he starred in The Fantasticks
, Oklahoma and Carousel
, among others. He also worked at the off-Broadway Light Opera of Manhattan
.
In late 1981, Alessandrini conceived and wrote a musical parody revue featuring spoofs of songs from Broadway
musicals on which he had been working for some time. After a few months of weekend performances starring Alessandrini and a few friends at Palsson's Supper Club
, the show evolved into Forbidden Broadway
, which opened on January 15, 1982, at Palsson's, directed by Alessandrini. He continued to appear in the revue, which caught the theatergoing public's attention after Rex Reed
published a rave review and ultimately ran for 2,332 performances in a number of venues. It has subsequently been rewritten several times to include parodies of newer shows and ran almost continuously for 25 years with productions both in and outside New York. In 2006, the show and Alessandrini won Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre
. The last incarnation, called Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab
, played at the 47th Street Theatre until March 2009.
Alessandrini can be heard on five of the eight Forbidden Broadway cast albums, as well as the soundtracks of Disney's animated
films Aladdin and Pocahontas
. His directorial credits include Equity Library Theatre's revival of Gigi
and Maury Yeston
's 1998 show In the Beginning. In 1991, he co-wrote, directed and performed in the television parody Masterpiece Tonight, a satirical salute to the 20th anniversary of Masterpiece Theatre
. In 1995, some of his sketches were featured in Carol Burnett
’s CBS
special, Men, Movies and Carol. He has also written comedy specials for Bob Hope
and Angela Lansbury
for NBC
.
During summer 2001, Alessandrini introduced his Gongcores series with a tongue-in-cheek production of the 1962 Irving Berlin
musical Mr. President
. In 2011, he co-created the musical comedy, The Nutcracker and I, with music by Tchaikovsky
, book by Peter Brash
and lyrics by Alessandrini. The musical is scheduled to debut at the George Street Playhouse
in New Brunswick, New Jersey
during the 2011 Christmas season, directed by the theatre's artistic director, David Saint.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, parodist
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and theatre director best known for creating the award-winning 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 theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
parody revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
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...
. He is the recipient of Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre
Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre
The Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre is a non-competitive award created by the American Theatre Wing in 1990. They are presented to institutions, individuals and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible to compete in any of the...
, an Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
, four Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
s (including the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics is an annual award presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
and the Drama Desk Special Award
Drama Desk Special Award
The Drama Desk Special Award is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee comprising New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors. It is a non-competitive award that honors an individual or an organization that has made a significant contribution to Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway,...
), an Outer Critics Circle Award
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
, and two Lucille Lortel
Lucille Lortel
Lucille Lortel was an American actress and theater producer who is remembered as the namesake of an off-Broadway playhouse and theatrical award....
Awards, as well as the Drama League Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
Life and career
Alessandrini was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in suburbSuburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an Needham
Needham, Massachusetts
Needham is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 28,886 at the 2010 census.- History :...
. After graduating from the Boston Conservatory of Music, he moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. As a young actor in summer stock
Summer Stock
For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...
, regional theater and dinner theater
Dinner theater
Dinner theater is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. Sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to the meal, in the style of a sophisticated night club, or the play may be a major production with dinner less important, or in some...
, he starred in The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It was produced by Lore Noto. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into...
, Oklahoma and Carousel
Carousel (musical)
Carousel is the second stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II . The work premiered in 1945 and was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline...
, among others. He also worked at the off-Broadway Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan, known as LOOM, was an Off-Broadway repertory theatre company that produced light operas, including the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and European and American operettas, 52 weeks per year, in New York City between 1968 and 1989....
.
In late 1981, Alessandrini conceived and wrote a musical parody revue featuring spoofs of songs from Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musicals on which he had been working for some time. After a few months of weekend performances starring Alessandrini and a few friends at Palsson's Supper Club
Triad Theater
The Triad Theatre, formerly known as Palsson's Supper Club and Steve McGraw's, is located on West 72nd Street on New York's Upper West Side...
, the show evolved into 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...
, which opened on January 15, 1982, at Palsson's, directed by Alessandrini. He continued to appear in the revue, which caught the theatergoing public's attention after Rex Reed
Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed is an American film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show At the Movies. He currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.-Life and career:...
published a rave review and ultimately ran for 2,332 performances in a number of venues. It has subsequently been rewritten several times to include parodies of newer shows and ran almost continuously for 25 years with productions both in and outside New York. In 2006, the show and Alessandrini won Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre
Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre
The Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre is a non-competitive award created by the American Theatre Wing in 1990. They are presented to institutions, individuals and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible to compete in any of the...
. The last incarnation, called Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab
Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab
Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab is the final incarnation of Gerard Alessandrini's long-running hit Off-Broadway musical revue Forbidden Broadway, which parodies notable current Broadway and Off Broadway musicals. The revue ran in 2008.-Production:...
, played at the 47th Street Theatre until March 2009.
Alessandrini can be heard on five of the eight Forbidden Broadway cast albums, as well as the soundtracks of Disney's animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
films Aladdin and Pocahontas
Pocahontas (1995 film)
Pocahontas is the 33rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to selected theaters on June 16, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures...
. His directorial credits include Equity Library Theatre's revival of Gigi
Gigi (musical)
Gigi is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. It is based on the novella Gigi by Colette and 1958 hit musical film of the same name. The story concerns Gigi, a free-spirited teenaged girl living in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. She is being...
and Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist, educator and musicologist.He is known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals, including Nine in 1982, and Titanic in 1997, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. He also won a Drama Desk Award for Nine...
's 1998 show In the Beginning. In 1991, he co-wrote, directed and performed in the television parody Masterpiece Tonight, a satirical salute to the 20th anniversary of Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly prime time drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions...
. In 1995, some of his sketches were featured in Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
’s CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
special, Men, Movies and Carol. He has also written comedy specials for Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
and Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
.
During summer 2001, Alessandrini introduced his Gongcores series with a tongue-in-cheek production of the 1962 Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
musical Mr. President
Mr. President (musical)
Mr. President is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and lyrics and music by Irving Berlin.It focuses on U.S. President Stephen Decatur Henderson, who loses his bid for re-election following a disastrous trip to the Soviet Union...
. In 2011, he co-created the musical comedy, The Nutcracker and I, with music by Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, book by Peter Brash
Peter Brash
Peter Brash is an American television soap opera writer. He has written for soaps for over 25 years.Peter Brash was born in Boston, MA, and graduated in 1976 from Boston College. He appeared in the 1983 film "Without a Trace" with Judd Hirsch...
and lyrics by Alessandrini. The musical is scheduled to debut at the George Street Playhouse
George Street Playhouse
George Street Playhouse is a theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey, one of the state's preeminent professional theatres committed to the production of new and established plays....
in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
during the 2011 Christmas season, directed by the theatre's artistic director, David Saint.