ctor/director John
Freedson has loved Broadway
musicals since he was a child.
But as an adult, he's having
more fun ripping the genre to
shreds. Mr. Freedson directs
and performs in Forbidden
Broadway, a musical-comedy
revue that lampoons many of
Broadway's most beloved stars
and musicals.
Showing at Detroit's Gem
Theatre, the production puts
such favorites as Cats, Evita,
Les Miserables and Phantom of
the Opera square in the cross
hairs of insightful parody. The
Forbidden Broadway ensem-
ble, which includes Mr. Freed-
son, Dorothy Kiara, Christine
Pedi and William Selby, also
targets individuals. The
troupe performs hilarious and
dead-on impersonations of
Carol Channing, Yul Brynner,
Barbra Streisand, Richard
Harris and a side-splitting
pairing of Mary Martin and
Ethel Merman.
"It's more fun than any
show I've ever done," Mr.
Freedson says. "Everybody
gets to do the entire range of
what they can do — from sing-
ing at their very best to very
broad comedy."
The Detroit production is
the first stop in Forbidden
Broadway's 10-year anniver-
sary tour. Mr. Freedson, 35,
has been involved with the
show on and off for seven
years. He directed perfor-
mances in Sydney, Australia;
Boston, Minneapolis, Phila-
delphia and Chicago — where
it won the Jefferson Award for
best musical review in 1990.
He assembled what he calls
an "all-star cast" of the show's
New York veterans for Forbid-
den Broadway's first visit to
Detroit.
When casting a show, Mr.
AARON HALABE
Special to The Jewish News
John Freedson, right, and the
Detroit cast of Forbidden
Broadway.
When he saw it, John Freedson begged
an audition for Forbidden Broadway.
Freedson looks for a "stellar"
voice before comedic or imper-
sonation abilities. "I look for
first-rate singers who sing as
well as the stars they're paro-
dying;' he says. "Because if
you don't, then the show starts
to look like sour grapes. It
starts to look like we're mak-
ing fun of these people
because we're not as good as
they are. And I've made that
mistake a couple of times."
There's no mistaking this
cast as anything but first-rate.
The ensemble is put through
their paces, performing 25
musical numbers that range
from a rugged Yul Brynner
impersonation to coloratura
singing.
The performance includes
"Phantom of the Musical" (a
parody of "Phantom of the
Opera"), "Ambition" (from
"Tradition" from Fiddler) and
"I Strain In Vain To Train
Madonna's Brain" (originally
"The Rain in Spain" from My
Fair Lady). Mr. Freedson per-
forms as Yul Brynner, Dustin
Hoffman and M. Butterfly.
Forbidden Broadway creator
Gerard Alessandrini believes
that Broadway musicals are
prime satirical targets
because many people think of
them as "the ultimate in the
art form. I think the best
thing to parody is anything
that is considered stuffy, or
held up as a sacred cow," Mr.
Alessandrini says, "or some-
thing that is considered im-
portant, maybe more impor-
tant than it should be."
Evidently, many celebrities
who are spoofed in the show
don't take Forbidden Broad-
way too seriously. Mr. Freed-
son says some stars consider it
a badge of honor to be includ-
ed. "You knew you had made
it if you were spoofed in For-
bidden Broadway. It has
become a form of flattery in a
way," he says.
When Forbidden Broadway
opened in 1982 at Paulson's
supper club on New York's up-
per west side, the show didn't
include a Carol Channing
number. In the early days, Mr.
Freedson jokes, it was thought
that "a parody of Carol Chan-
ning would be redundant."
Since then (after a request
from her husband), a Carol
Channing number was added
to the show.
Mr. Freedson says Ms. Chan-
ning, Ann Miller, Anthony
Quinn and other celebrities
regularly attend Forbidden
Broadway performances.
"After it had been running in
New York for a while, it was
like the in-thing for Broadway
stars to do," he says. "We
wouldn't want Lauren Bacall
to come because we sort of im-
ply that she's a man. Or Liza
Minelli, because we're still
harping on her drug days:'
The majority of the show's
material is well-intentioned
lampoonery that honors the
grand traditions of the Broad-
way musical. One glaring ex-
ception is the ensemble's
treatment of Les Miserables,
and British musicals in
general. Mr. Freedson calls
the Les Miz parody "an indict-
ment" of Andrew Lloyd Web-
ber's convoluted story, and
strained musical lines that
force singers "way out of their
range." (One Forbidden Broad-
way number is called "It's lb°
High.")
"We feel that the British
have come and ruined the
musical for all times," says Mr.
Freedson. "They've made
these sort of overblown operas
that take themselves so
seriously and have no heart to
them. They're just these big,
dark, clunking spectacles. So
our Les Miz parody is not an
affectionate tribute . . ."
Mr. Freedson was inspired to
pursue a theater career when,
as a high school student, he
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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