Enjoy Celebrity Radio’s Forbidden Broadway West End Review Vaudeville Theatre 2014…..
Just when the West End thought it was safe from the poison pen of funny-man Gerard Alessandrini – Forbidden Broadway swoops in from New York for more cutting and hilarious mockery of the West End.
This Broadway mega-hit has finally made its way to the Vaudeville Theatre on the Strand to mock Les Mis, poke fun at Phantom and leave the Lion King looking really silly!
Musical theatre can’t help but take itself awful seriously, well, this show rips the carpet from under itself and lays bare the nonsense of the genre.
This cuttingly brilliant parody makes fun of the lunacy of the ‘musical’ genre. Out of context bursting into song does seem a little peculiar.
So is it up to the hype???……
Enjoy Celebrity Radio’s Exclusive Audio / Visual Review via YouTube:
In the last 30 years Off-Broadway they’ve picked up 9 Drama Desk Awards, a Special Tony, an Obie, a Lucille Lortel and Drama League Award – FB is back for the second time this year featuring outrageous costumes, hilarious rewrites of the songs you know, and dead-on impressions by a stellar cast!
Well, I loved the show and at times it crescendoed into spectacular hilarity. The audience adored The Lion King, Wicked and Phantom spoofs, however, if you don’t know much about musicals I wouldn’t bother as it’s very ‘in’ with a lot of ‘presumed’ knowledge.
There were genuinely huge laughs tonight and despite the odd misplaced non-theatre-goer, the show was very warmly received.
Enjoy an Exclusive life story interview with Anna and Alex Belfield recorded in the West End:
You can only admire the tenacity of a writer who can parody shows that are newer than itself. Their brand new ‘Scoundrels’ piss-take with Robert Lindsey was truly inspired, brilliantly delivered and perfectly observed.
The success of this performance is driven by an extra-ordinarily talent cast who all had remarkable voices and tremendous energy. Thank God because unless they were ‘Broadway’ standard performers it just wouldn’t work….it’d just look rubbish with no set and just a pianist on stage.
The show Stars West End legend Anna-Jane Casey, Damian Humbley and Ben Lewis who collectively give 110% to deliver this wordy, energetic, belly-laugh inducing production.
I did feel the show could chop down some of the more ‘obscure’ scenes and just give the killer stuff straight through. Revue’s such as this don’t really need an interval anyway.
This show is not competing with its targets. It is not trying to be credible – it’s just making fun and having fun. So refreshing in a town that couldn’t take itself more seriously.
Christina Bianco arguably steals the show. Best known as a YouTube sensation, she’s a brilliant impressionist with a stunning voice. She is spot on, cutting and hysterically brilliant at mocking targets including Elaine Paige (complete with Radio 2 jingle), Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth and even Bernadette Peters. Such precision and a hugely powerful voice.
Enjoy an Exclusive interview with Alex Belfield and Christina from October 2014:
Whether you’re a seasoned theatre-goer or new to the West End, Forbidden Broadway is your one-stop ticket to non-stop laughs leaving unable to ever take a musical serious again!
What’s also great is this production evolves – who know’s who will be targeted next year!?
Don’t miss Forbidden Broadway! 4****
Forbidden Broadway is at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, until November 22. 0844 482 9675
http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/vaudeville-theatre/
Review by Alex Belfield for Celebrity Radio 20th October 2014.
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