Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit. Photo by Michael Brosilow_____________
Playwright: Gerard Alessandrini
At: Royal George Theatre Center, 1641 N. Halsted
Phone: 312-988-9000; $35-$49.50
Through July 1
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Bad theater truly is a crime ( especially at the prices some theaters charge ) . Thank heaven Broadway's unofficial court jester, Gerard Alessandrini, has been prosecuting theater transgressors for the past 25 years in his off-Broadway revue, Forbidden Broadway.
With all the pre-Broadway tryouts, tours and other theater trafficking going on in Chicago, it's only natural that Alessandrini and his crack team of prosecuting actors would import their own hilarious brand of Law and Order on the Windy City.
So if you've ever felt shell-shocked by bombastic British Broadway spectacles, jilted by greedy jukebox musicals or co-opted into Disney's corporate theatrical conglomerate, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit is for you. Besides, this show practically comes with its own guarantee that its laughs are constantly convulsive.
Alessandrini's spoofing song lyrics hit so many targets on the bull's-eye that you wonder if he's doped up on some form of satirical enhancing formula. The same goes for his changeling cast, who have superhuman strength in mimicking celebrity mannerisms, changing through a parade of comic costumes by legendary designer Alvin Colt and cracking you up with clockwork comic timing.
Diva worshippers of Liza Minelli, Sarah Brightman and Carol Channing may want to shield their eyes from actress Valerie Fagan's ruthless imitations that exaggerate up all their idiosyncratic flaws. ( Her buck-toothed Brightman was particularly cutting while spoofing her shrill operatic trills. )
Former Chicago actress Leisa Mather also scores with each of her characterizations. From a greedy Yoko Ono capitalizing on her late husband's songbook to make the flop jukebox musical Lennon to a hyper-perky Mary Poppins frantically trashing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to show up Disney's theme park colonization of Broadway, Mather's performance is high-voltage stuff.
Both Fagan and Mather spar wonderfully in two 'who's the better actress' slugfests, first between original Wicked stars Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel ( the latter wins by singing Defying Chenoweth ) and between Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf star Kathleen Turner and the stern nun Cherry Jones played in Doubt ( hilariously replacing the title of The Isley Brothers' tune 'Shout' ) .
Michael West ( who clearly works out a lot ) does a hilarious job spoofing Broadway leading men, from an aging and forgetful Bob Goulet in La Cage aux Folles to Harvey Fierstein bizarre raspy-voiced take on Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
Also great fun is Jared Bradshaw tackling the perilous heights of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and the difficult score of Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza. Music director Ron Roy keeps everyone expertly through their frantic paces at the grand piano.
With all the great imported and exported Chicago theater, there's no excuse not to enjoy Forbidden Broadway: SVU. Missing it would truly be an unforgivable crime.