What can you say about Gerard Alessandrini's "Forbidden Broadway" franchise, which has been going for 23 years? Segments have come and gone, but the formula remains the same: satiric jabs at current or recent musicals and impersonations of Broadway greats past and present.
The current edition follows the same recipe, with delicious holdovers like "Phantom," "Thoroughly Modern Millie," and Bernadette Peters' underpowered "Gypsy" mixed with newer spoofs of "Avenue Q," "Bombay Dreams," "Movin' Out," "The Boy From Oz," and even, briefly, the upcoming "Good Vibrations" and "All Shook Up." Personalities on the hot seat include Edie Falco, Patti LuPone, Elton John, Billy Joel, and Brooke Shields. Pride of place goes to "Wicked" in the first act, with rivalry between its leading ladies the main target, culminating in a soaring "Defying Chenoweth." In the second act, Alessandrini sets his withering pen to the "Fiddler on the Roof" revival, with its distinctly un-Jewish flavoring.
In terms of material, Alessandrini has lost none of his razor-sharp precision, with the preponderance of puppets and the vagaries of the Tonys coming in for special skewering. But the cast, personable and talented all, prove variable as impersonators, with the men (Ron Bohmer and Jason Mills) stronger than the women (Jennifer Simard and Megan Lewis, the latter substituting for an indisposed Christine Pedi). Still, with evocative wigs and costumes (Alvin Colt) and enough broad caricature, the barbs land.
But each of the four has his or her high point: Bohmer's "Lion King" opening, Lewis' Idina Menzel, Simard's Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Mills' "Cabaret"-flavored Jefferson Mays.
Megan K. Halpern's spangly curtain setting and Marc Janowitz's lighting maintain the revuelike ambience. Alessandrini, co-directing with Phillip George, keeps things moving, and David Caldwell provides sterling accompaniment.
Just one beef: Considering the pointed lyric about microphone distortion, what gives with the lyric-distorting amplification here?