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‘Forbidden Broadway' is back with new Broadway targets to spoof

Advertisement 'He wasn't a celebrity. He wasn't Sondheim yet! So people left him alone,' Alessandrini said. 'He was very approachable and I think genuinely flattered that somebody wanted to talk about the show and the writing process, that somebody was paying attention to the writing at all, not just the sets and the stars.' Now, more than five decades later, Alessandrini is back at the Colonial with his indestructible musical parody revue 'Forbidden Broadway,' which he launched in 1982. The latest iteration Sondheim spoofs are woven throughout the show, including sendups of 'Merrily,' 'Old Friends' ('Old Show'), 'Sweeney Todd' ('The Worst Shows in London') and 'Company' ('Bump-a-Knee'). It also features a parade of mocking parodies of recent shows like 'The Outsiders,' 'Hell's Kitchen,' 'Suffs,' and 'The Great Gatsby' and revivals of 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Cabaret,' 'Gypsy,' and 'Cats,' while also skewering self-aggrandizing stars like Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Jeremy Jordan, and Ben Platt. Led by musical director Fred Barton (a Boston-area native), the cast features 'Forbidden Broadway' veteran Jenny Lee Stern, Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, Chris Collins-Pisano, and John Wascavage. Advertisement "Forbidden Broadway" plays the Emerson Colonial Feb. 8 and 9. Carole Rosegg While the show is ultimately a revue, Stern, who's pitched in with ideas over the years, explained that there's a Sondheim narrative arc that involves Marty and Doc from the musical version of 'Back to the Future' traveling back in time in the Delorean and mistakenly altering the course of Broadway history. 'Somehow they keep Steven Sondheim from meeting [his mentor] Oscar Hammerstein, and that misstep changes the course of musical theater forever,' Stern said, 'and we have to go back in time and rectify that. With Doc and Marty leading the way, we revisit classic musicals and we go ahead in time and see where Broadway might be in the future.' Alessandrini has made a career out of borrowing show tunes from Broadway musicals and creating parodies using their familiar melodies and riffs. The lyrics spoof aspects of the shows, their plot points, and stars, while also paying homage to what's great about them (or at least some of them). They also sometimes dive into the backstage scuttlebutt and acerbic commentary about the shows online, but always with love at heart. 'That's the thing — we're fans first,' Stern said. 'We're not here trying to be mean or tear down Broadway. We're here to build it up through comedy. So we 'shove with love,' as we say.' Advertisement For Alessandrini, writing parodies came naturally, even going back to his teenage years. 'I would do satirical turns on movies and shows, just to amuse friends in high school.' That penchant for healthy criticism could be traced to his upbringing in Needham. His mother and aunts loved opera and music, but they weren't afraid to jokingly chastise sacred cows, including legendary opera diva Maria Callas, he says. 'No matter how good something was, they always found something that was wrong with it that could be improved,' he remarks with a laugh. Parody has always appealed to Alessandrini because of its mocking irreverence. 'It's turning something inside out, especially something that's respected. That's why the spoofs of more serious shows like 'The Outsiders' or 'Les Misérables' play the funniest, because those shows lack irony, so it's naughty to turn them into something silly and knock them down a peg.' he says. Today, parodies are a staple of YouTube and social media sites like TikTok. But at the time, 'Forbidden Broadway' was something of a pioneer. 'Originally, nobody was saying these things,' Alessandrini says. 'We were gossiping and saying things that people thought but weren't expressing publicly.' When Alessandrini arrived in New York after graduating from the Boston Conservatory, he would write little parody songs and 'sing them to friends to make them laugh' or leave them as messages on their answering machines. Soon, Alessandrini and his Advertisement The idea for a show soon emerged, and they performed an early version at the apartment of some friends from Boston. The group loved it and suggested they pitch it to Palsson's Supper Club on the Upper West Side. 'Being very scatterbrained and oblivious, we forget to even put out fliers or promote it,' he said. 'But the word got around immediately.' Before long, they were performing for big crowds, including celebrities and theater royalty like Sondheim, who would come and check on the show regularly. 'Forbidden Broadway' ran for five years at Palsson's, and Alessandrini has continued to write new editions that have played venues around New York. The show, which was honored with a Tony Award in 2006, has also toured across the country and overseas. Alessandrini's hit 'Hamilton' spoof, ' The lessons Alessandrini learned from Sondheim, watching him rework pre-Broadway shows at the Colonial including 'A Little Night Music' in 1973, have continued to stick with him decades later. During the 1971 run of 'Follies,' he noticed that Sondheim had discarded one of the songs, 'Can That Boy Foxtrot,' for star Yvonne De Carlo. 'I thought, why did they take that out?' he recalled. 'Then about 10 minutes later, she walked over to the piano and started singing [ It was a lesson in the necessity of rewriting. 'What I realized was that just because something works doesn't mean there isn't something better than you can do,' Alessandrini says. 'I admired that and learned early on that shows aren't written — they're rewritten.' Advertisement 'I still believe that. I'm always like, 'Hey, maybe we should do this instead?'' Alessandrini adds with a laugh. 'And I drive my cast absolutely crazy!' FORBIDDEN BROADWAY Written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini. At: The Emerson Colonial Theater, Feb. 8 and 9. Tickets from $39. 888-616-0272,