Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song – 22 September 2024

Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song was a magical night full of laughter. As a member of a younger generation than most of the theatre critics whose work I read, it was really fun to see the new shows I’ve seen live in the past couple of years freely mix and mingle with the classics I grew up listening to that never lose their charm. In particular, I enjoyed watching Hell’s Kitchen morph into The Music Man and The Outsiders morph into West Side Story. The thin semblance of a plot involving Stephen Sondheim going back in time in the Delorian was just enough to keep the energy of the revue going to its full, 90 minute duration.

Some memorable moments included the beginning with the usher’s Guys and Dolls parody of “Sit Down, You’re Blocking the Aisle”, the unforgettable Cabaret transformation from Joel Grey to Alan Cumming to Eddie Redmayne, and an exceptionally accurate tribute to Patti LuPone via Company’s eleven o’clock number.

I came to this show as a lover of (almost) every show depicted within it, as did many other audience members, as I’d imagine the cast and crew did also. It was disappointing to me that none of the parody songs were loving. In a revue that thematically is about how the good days of memorable ideas and original theatre are gone, it was sad to see Forbidden Broadway exemplify the same phenomenon it was criticizing: tearing down the love we have for the theatre by throwing away its integrity for a cheap laugh at the industry’s expense. There are so many ways to write parodies that showcase a reverence for the material you’re rewriting beyond the assumption that you must like it or you wouldn’t spend the time crafting it, directing it, performing in it, choreographing it, etc.

I enjoyed the laughs, but I wanted more love in the writing. I felt it in myself, in the audience, in the cast, in the design, and in the pianist.  It was extremely present in the room. The writing would have been more varied and engaging if some of the songs uplifted the performances instead of mocking them and celebrated the performers through their impressions instead of demeaning them. Some of the things we’ve seen on Broadway this year are clever and fun; not all jokes have to be mean to be funny, just as not all shows have to be completely original to be beautiful and meaningful.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Glenna Freedman Public Relations.