The first
Forbidden Broadway album is a modest affair in which writer/director Gerard Alessandrini pokes fun at some contemporary Broadway efforts and some longtime Broadway stars. Using familiar music, he pens parody lyrics in which a
Patti LuPone soundalike complains that, despite starring in Evita on Broadway, she won't get to do the movie (true) and predicts that
Barbra Streisand will (false, but intriguing); "Kevin Kline" expounds on the wonders of being Kevin Kline to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirate King," and "Annie" sings a version of "Tomorrow" that ends up declaring, "Redundant, redundant, this song is redundant." Much of the album is given over to making fun of Broadway divas like
Ethel Merman,
Mary Martin, and
Carol Channing, impersonations that actually live better than some of the inside jokes that make up many of the lyrics. Theater aficionados will love the album, not only for the timely material, but also for perennial bits such as the complaint from a rehearsal pianist set to the tune of "They're Playing Our Song" ("I'm Sick of Playing Their Songs") and an explanation of the life of working actors set to the tune of Fiddler on the Roof's "Tradition" ("Ambition"). ~ William Ruhlmann