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"Forbidden Broadway" returns to Boston to honor composer with a parody twist

"Forbidden Broadway" honor composer with a parody twist in Boston
"Forbidden Broadway" honor composer with a parody twist in Boston 03:22

BOSTON - "Forbidden Broadway" is back in Boston. The parody production, which ran for seven years at the Park Plaza in the '80s and '90s, is returning for a trio of shows at the Emerson Colonial Theater.

The man behind the spoof is a Tony Award winner from Needham.

Gerard Alessandrini told us, as a teen, "I'd come in and see shows here, right here at the Colonial. Then write a parody about it for my friends, and I'd sing it, and if people had seen the show or knew the stars, they'd laugh."

Making a parody Broadway show

That laughter motivated Alessandrini to turn his hobby into a career that's lasted throughout the decades. He says adaptation is the key to success.         

"I update it all the time.  So it's not what it was in 1981 or in 82, it's about what theater is like now on Broadway, around the world, around the country."

The newest version, "Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song," is a parody of the Stephen Sondheim show, "Merrily We Roll Along." Sondheim was a big influence on Alessandrini.             

"1971. Here on this stage at the Colonial Theater, I saw Follies. I'd never seen anything like it. I identified that it was the writing of the shows that really made them great shows, not just the magnificent direction and staging and sets and costumes, which they also had, but it was how they were written. And that's Sondheim, and I think that's ultimately what led me to want to be a writer."

This new piece pays homage to the theater legend, with some of the familiar "Forbidden Broadway" bites.

"It's a backhanded tribute, let me put it that way, but definitely a tribute… When he passed, you could feel the loss in theater because you know Sondheims only come along once in a century."

Modernizing musical theater

But this "Forbidden Broadway" is about more than just Sondheim. When creating a show, Alessandrini pays close attention to what's timely and topical.

He says, "One of the new numbers that I just rewrote the lyric for, is our parody of Wicked about Cynthia Erivo doing the film of Wicked. And how they took the stage show and made it into a movie."

A young and talented cast of four helps complete the puzzle.

"You've got to get the actors to be fabulous, you've got to get the parody lyrics to be right, you've got to get the costume changes right, but you also have to explain to the audience what's going on. On another level you're not just seeing spoofs of theater," Alessandrini says. "You're seeing these actors being put through the mill and go through the hardships of what maybe a story would be doing. You put them through the paces, and you enjoy the show on a completely different level."

You can check out "Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song" at the Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston on February 8th and 9th.

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