Forbidden Broadway
Goes to Rehab

Not only will the end of this 27 year blessed wacky wonder leave the New York theater scene severely wanting, but it will be theater-goers who may want to check into rehab without our fill of Broadway spoofs and sharpened claw wittiness. Writer-creator Gerard Alessandrini may need a break, but do we? Whether we want one or not, when January 15th rolls around, we will say ‘bye bye’ to one of New York’s historical marvels. Hopefully it will only be on an extended vacation!

This edition is one of the funniest and clever of the lot. The entire Disney repertoire currently on Broadway is trashed to smithereens. Poor Little Mermaid— "dressed like a worm, has to squirm like an otter – a diva playing a fish!" Mary Poppins doesn’t fair any better with ‘"Supercalifictional, you’ll think you’re at a Broadway show, but you’re in Disney Hell." Even The Lion King is revisited as "Hamlet goes Safari. . . who needs Sondheim it’s the circle of mice."

Little pert and pint-sized Christina Bianco seems to be the great surprise throughout with her big voice that morphs into whomever she’s spoofing and gesticulations that capture the very essence of each diva. She’s especially hysterical as Kristin Chenoweth in “Glitter and Be Glib” with all the precision on the high and low notes and as cute a button as the “Cockeyed Ingénue” as well a on romantic ballad “Some Endangered Species.”

‘Everything’s Coming Up Patti’ isn’t that much of a revelation, but Gina Kreiezmar’s Patti LuPone moments are. She’s got the look, the feel and the pipes as she captures the essence of LuPone and maybe should have been singing “It’s All About Me.” Kreiezmar wins with Liza, Idina and again on “Spring Awakening.”

Michael West and Jared Bradshaw don’t have as many starring moments, but they do shine. Bradshaw in “Let Me Enter Naked” and with short shorts as Cheyenne Jackson on skates in “Xanadude.” West, likewise, looks and sounds as good as James Barbour in A Tale of Two Cities and makes a beautiful buxom Fierstein in “You Can’t Stop the Camp.” Young Frankenstein, [title of show] (little no show) and In The Heights are all similarly trashed to expectation. Musical Direction is by David Caldwell.

Say your last respects soon so you don’t run out of time on a theater treasure!

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
October 3, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org