Review - Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit

Date: December 16, 2007

Time: 4:00 pm

47th Street Theatre NYC

I was very shocked at the size of the theater. My last show was The Grinch at the Hilton Theater which was huge! It was very small, but it made it feel quaint. Our seats were in Row F against the wall, but in a theater so small it didn't make a difference, everything was clear and visible. The show started around 5 - 10 minutes after 4:00pm.

First was the Annie/Law & Order skit, which started things off nicely, especially if you are a big L & O fan like we are. (I don't remember exact orders of skits so please bare with me). I believe the Chicago/Brooke Shields skit was next, then the Avenue Q/Lion King/Little Shop of Horrors Puppet skit. That was very entertaining. Following that was the Julia Roberts/Martin Short/Stephen Schwartz "It Sucks to be Me" skit. The Stephen Schwartz impersonation by Jared Bradshaw was hilarious and totally unexpected. You really wouldn't get if you never saw the man before, but if you have, oh boy the crowd was in hysterics. There were a few songs about Disney and their domination of Broadway. "Beauty has been Decreased", "Circe of Mice, & "Can You Feel the Sprain Tonight" were very entertaining. I love how the Lion King costumes were "pieced" together. There were a few numbers even I didn't "get" but they were still funny. The icing on the cake for me though was the "Les Mis" numbers! I was crying becuase of how hard I laughed! They mocked "Bring Him Home","One Day More", & the whole circular stage set . Phenomenal. Other spoofs were Spamalot, Mamma Mia, Spelling Bee (William, spell High Fidelity. "F-L-O-P" That's Correct!), Hairspray, Hugh Jackman/Boy From Oz, Sweeny Todd Revival.

Both actors & actresses had pleasent voices and were very funny. The performances lacked some of the shows I was hoping to see spoofed (they only did one song from Wicked - "Defying Chenoweth"). The website said the show was 1 1/2 hours, yet it only ran 1 hour 10 minutes. It's all good, it was still very enjoyable. I think the whole concept of "Forbidden Broadway" is very original and very entertaining. I wish I had known about this earlier and I would have seen other productions. You can tell they try to keep things current (ex. High Fidelity spoof) which adds to the shows capabilities. The only thing I didn't like was that every other song was about how commercialized broadway is, or how much the Tony's suck, or at least that's what I got out of it. Of course they make very valid points, but I didn't need to be reminded so many times. I won't be rushing to see this again in the next couple months, but I can definitely see revisiting this show in another year or so.

I would not recommend this show to newbie theater goers. It would be funny but wouldn't pack as much punch.