FORBIDDEN BROADWAY Coming to Broadway This Summer- Page 3

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 9/2/24 at 3:57am

Has anyone seen it?  $30 tickets throughout previews 

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 4:19pm

Has anyone made it over, now that previews have started?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 4:22pm

Saw it the other day and had a lot of fun. Some bits were better than others but that was to be expected. Very very talented cast and a spot-on Audra impression that really made me laugh. 

[BETTY22]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 4:23pm

I really wanted to love it.....thankfully, i only paid $30

Ouch....

[LuckyDipster]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 4:32pm

What do they do for the Roger Bart bit?  Is it a song or an impression or both?  Are they parodying a specific song from BTTF?

[summerwind03]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 4:40pm

I had never seen Forbidden Broadway before and thought it was great! 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 4:41pm

Interesting Sasha Hutchings and Aj Holmes are no longer in it. Anyone know why?

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 11:25pm

especially odd that Sasha and AJ left the production seeing as they were only announced like 3 weeks ago

[reed23]

Posted: 9/6/24 at 7:00am

Sasha and AJ were cast (unannounced) a few months ago in the aborted Broadway version and carried over to the Off-Broadway. Sasha went to do NINE at the Kennedy Center, then came back for FB... not sure what's gone on since.

[romain2]

Posted: 9/19/24 at 5:51pm

Caught it last weekend. I have seen a few Forbidden Broadway shows and enjoyed them. This has 4 very gifted singers and comedians who are game throughout. Some sketches are pure gold (the Cabaret one especially, The Outsiders). A few need work. There are plenty of jabs as expected and it would have been brave of the creators to address that they were aiming for Broadway with this. Something self-effacing would have been a counterbalance to some of the razzing. Still worth seeing if you like broad silly comedy and parody. 

Updated On: 9/19/24 at 05:51 PM

[LuckyDipster]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 6:31am

LuckyDipster said: "What do they do for the Roger Bart bit? Is it a song or an impression or both? Are they parodying a specific song from BTTF?"

I now know what the sketch entails, but I am curious to know what people thought of it.

[reed23]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 6:54am

The opening number has a repeated title "Forbidden Broadway... NOT on Broadway..." and a line about the show being "banished by snooty bigshots," something like that. One or two of the critics mentioned that as a self-reference to the Broadway gig that didn't happen. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 12:59pm

LuckyDipster said: "LuckyDipster said: "What do they do for theRoger Bartbit? Is it a song or an impression or both? Are they parodying a specific song from BTTF?"

I now know what the sketch entails, but I am curious to know what people thought of it."

I thought they'd mine the BTTF bit a little more since there's a lot they could've gotten into, but the choreography really got me because it was so accurate.

[romain2]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 1:50pm

That’s true. The lyrics are there. But they have similar lyrics in many of their shows. This was the first time I remember a Broadway gig falling through. More could have been made of it IMO. 

Another missed opportunity: they once had a great sketch with a love fest between Mandy and Patti saying each other’s names over and over again adoringly. They could have done something like that with the 3 Merrily leads. Tease them for their endless (but yes adorable) love fest in interviews and on stage. Jonathan crying. Crying. Crying. I felt a little underwhelmed with the show’s conclusions about the Merrily remount personally. 

[Dan6]

Posted: 10/14/24 at 5:41pm

Closing early on November 3. 
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/FORBIDDEN-BROADWAY-MERRILY-WE-STOLE-A-SONG-to-Play-Final-Performance-in-November-20241014#:~:text=The%20production%20will,close%20on%20November%203rd.

[merle57]

Posted: 10/14/24 at 7:02pm

Surpised and sad  to see this close abruptly. Is this the shortest Forbidden Broadway run?  The extremely short run suggests a Broadway run would have been a financial bust.  Maybe many jukebox shows and/or the fluff "movie-make-into-a-musical-for-no-artisti-reason" (e.g. BTTF)  have become parodies of themselves. 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 10/14/24 at 7:51pm

I heard this was pretty terrible. Just poorly pieced together. Imagine if this landed on Broadway? It would have closed after opening night.

[WldKingdomHM]

Posted: 10/14/24 at 9:25pm

Is forbidden Broadway ever a hit thou ? It fairs better on disc or a touring show 

[Theater3232]

Posted: 10/14/24 at 10:11pm

This version was pretty bad.  I remember seeing it years ago on that tall stage at the 47th St Theater and really enjoying it.  But this version came across as an amateurish cast for 3 of the 4 performers (with the exception of the lady with all the stage experience).  I didn't know several of the shows parodied and this version unhelpfully didn't announce the show name before they parodied it (unlike prior versions of Forbidden Broadway).  Many skits went on way too long.  At 1 hour 35 minutes, it more than wore out its welcome and I couldn't wait for it to be over.  The late curtain time certainly didn't do it any favors either.

Updated On: 10/14/24 at 10:11 PM

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 10/14/24 at 10:58pm

I still would love to know why cast members left during rehearsal

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/16/24 at 12:53am

Forbidden Broadway's problems are not dissimilar to that of the York Theatre: the audience they're trying to cater to is too small to matter.

It's only relevant if you've seen a majority of the recent Bway shows, which means they can only advertise to frequent theatergoers. Within the ever-shrinking NYC-based theatergoing audience, there's not a Broadway monoculture. BTTF and Great Gatsby sell a lot of tickets, but I doubt the target audience for FB has actually seen them. As someone who sees a fair amount of theatre, why spend $40 on FB when I could see a new-to-me Broadway show for the same price?

F.B. has always been at its best when it's lampooning hit shows and successful performers. It also got some mileage out of anything that was "different" from the status quo of Broadway, but now diversity is being celebrated. There are plenty of things about Broadway that CAN and should be savagely roasted (shows, the business, and the people who inhabit it), but only like 75 of us would find it funny. When your show loses 19 million, you don't need some off-Broadway pipsqueak ragging on you. Not to mention the age of sensitivity we live in.

Musical theatre parody kind of peaked in the 2000s with The Producers, Spamalot, and Mormon, and more recently there's been Titanique, Big Gay Jamboree, Stranger Sings, etc.

Maybe it would be better as a series of TikTok sketches.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 10/16/24 at 12:56am

It’s just a shame. Gerard Alessandrini used to be the “Weird Al” Yankovic of show tunes and Broadway stars in his prime. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 10/16/24 at 1:42pm

I wonder if this would fare better as a onec-in-a-while cabaret series.  Forbidden Sondheim seemed to do well (I think), and I agree the subset of people who this show would apply to is very narrow.  Though as someone who DOES see all the shows in each season, I'd hate for it to disappear completely, and I did enjoy a lot of the parodies here.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 10/16/24 at 1:58pm

Saw it shortly before opening, and it was fine, if not memorable. But I account that to the fact there's really nothing timeless to break through in public consciousness and make it to parody level. As much of a hit that Hell's Kitchen in, the Venn Diagram is not wide enough to make it worthy of an extended number. Even narrower for Suffs. The Back to the Future arc was fun because it had more to play with. But otherwise, a lot of talent with not much to play with.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 10/16/24 at 3:40pm

This should be a one-night-only special performance every couple of years. As a special event, I think it would sell great - it’s just not sustainable as a long run (as other members have noted above).