"I am predicting that if you listen to this CD of
Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab," writes Gerard Alessandrini in his liner notes, "you'll have a very sunny 70 minutes." The first thing that's wrong with this prediction by Alessandrini, the creator and writer of the long-running off-Broadway satirical revue Forbidden Broadway, is that the CD is less than 60 minutes long. The second thing that's wrong is that "sunny" isn't really the word to describe Alessandrini's parodies of Broadway shows and the impressions that the four-member cast does of Broadway stars. "Funny" is more what they aim at. In the fall of 2008, the New York theater community was surprised to hear that Forbidden Broadway was closing up shop after 27 years with the edition represented on this album. Alessandrini includes his charge that the play August: Osage County isn't a patch on Eugene O'Neill or Tennessee Williams, and he calls the Tony-winning In the Heights "West Side Story lite." Alessandrini also looks beyond Broadway for things to send up, from Internet chat sites ("All That Chat," set to the tune of "All That Jazz") to
Amy Winehouse. He also sinks to vulgarity, devoting an entire number, "Daniel Radcliffe in Equus," to going on about the actor known for his portrayal of Harry Potter appearing on-stage in the nude ("Let Me Entertain You" became "Let Me Enter Naked"), and rewriting "Puttin' on the Ritz" from Young Frankenstein as, yes, "Puttin' Up with S**t." By the formal end of the show, "Stephen Sondheim Finale," Alessandrini is writing an open love letter to Broadway's most celebrated composer/lyricist (who was 78 years old at the time), imploring him to write new shows and not just oversee revivals of his old ones. No doubt, Alessandrini was sincere. He closes the album with a song (partially sung by him for once) that isn't a parody of any specific antecedent, called "(Dying Is Easy) Comedy Is Hard." ~ William Ruhlmann