SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — With Broadway only a stone’s throw from South Orange, residents are just a short trip away from experiencing the spectacle and pageantry that only the Great White Way can offer. But they will not have to trek into Manhattan to hear iconic show tunes when the South Orange Performing Arts Center hosts “Forbidden Broadway” on Saturday, March 28, at 8 p.m. Of course, the songs being performed are unlike any heard at the Helen Hayes Theater.
In the more than three decades it has been performed, “Forbidden Broadway” has established itself as the premiere Broadway parody, racking up a special Tony and nine Drama Desk awards, among other accolades. The show features songs from some of the most recognizable productions of the past and present, but with a twist — the lyrics have been rewritten to satirize the plays from which they originated. Annie’s anthem “Tomorrow,” for instance, takes on a hilarious new meaning when it is sung by a grown-up version of the beloved character smoking a cigarette, lamenting that the next day will be her 30th birthday.
Through the years the show has become so successful it has toured the world, but producer John Freedson said the upcoming SOPAC show will be especially good. A South Orange resident for 15 years, Freedson said he wanted to make sure his neighbors experienced the best “Forbidden Broadway” has to offer when it stops in his own backyard.
“For this production I went to four of my very favorite Forbidden Broadway people from the New York show and said ‘OK, this is my hometown so we need to give it our A-game,” Freedson told the News-Record in a March 19 phone interview. “So we have four terrific actors coming out.”
And Freedson would know what makes a good “Forbidden Broadway” show — after all, he has been a part of the production for 30 years. He started out as a fan, recalling that he fell out of his chair laughing upon seeing a performance for the first time in 1984. Soon after, he was hired as an actor, later transitioning into the roles of director and producer when the show started touring the United States.
While it is rare in the theater for a person to stay so long with one company, Freedson said “Forbidden Broadway” has never gotten old for him. A major reason for that, he explained, is the fact that original playwright, Gerard Alessandrini, frequently updates the show to include the hottest new plays on Broadway, producing more than a dozen versions since 1982. That means audiences can expect to laugh at “The Book of Mormon” parodies along with satires of favorites such as “The Lion King.”
But aside from the fact that the production is always evolving, Freedson said he has stuck with it simply because he enjoys it so much.
“I do not think that I could have imagined that it would end up being a life’s work,” Freedson said. “But it turned out to be something that really ignited a passion in me.”
Freedson said he thinks the SOPAC audience will get as much of a kick out of the production as he has for all these years. Unlike most satirical shows that have good and bad pieces, he said every scene in “Forbidden Broadway” is a “homerun” owing to the fact that the script is so smartly written and the performances are honed in New York to find out what works best. He said this was exemplified in his own favorite part of the show, the “Les Miserables” parody.
“The ‘Les Mis’ parody was written initially some years back, and we keep adding onto it, subtracting from it, retailoring it,” Freedson said. “It is three hours long, so there is always something new to parody about it. So we keep tweaking it and changing it and it just keeps getting funnier and funnier.”
Theater lovers will especially be amused by one song from the “Les Miserables” segment, Freedson said, in which Jean Valjean sings “Bring Him Home” with lyrics complaining about how the song’s notes are too high.
Yet one does not have to be a Broadway expert to be blown away by the show. In fact, Freedson said an audience member only needs an appreciation for fine performances to get their money’s worth.
“It is great comedy and terrific music,” Freedson said. “What better is there than that?”
To order tickets, call 973-313-2787 or visit http://www.sopacnow.org/531/ForbiddenBroadway.