Michael West. _______
Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit—which is running at the Royal George Cabaret Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted, until July 29—hilariously skewers Great White Way productions ranging from Wicked to Les Miserables, and performers from Brooke Shields to Harvey Fierstein. ( The Cherry Jones-Kathleen Turner number, Doubt, has to be seen to be believed. ) Windy City Times recently talked with Forbidden cast member Michael West about the show, his own body of work ... and his body.
Windy City Times: What's your background?
Michael West: I grew up in Atlanta. I went to Boston University and finished up at Georgia State University. I worked in Atlanta for several years. I went to the High School of the Performing Arts in Atlanta; my mom likes to say that, at two, I said that I wanted to be an actress. [ Laughs ] So this is what I want to do. I really don't have any other skills. [ Laughs ]
I [ eventually ] moved to New York and did a one-person show called Live from the Betty Ford Clinic. I'm toying with the idea of workshopping it here [ with the next incarnation of the show ] .
WCT: You've been in 2,000 performances of Forbidden Broadway [ in various incarnations ] . Does it ever get old?
MW: Anything can get old occasionally, but most of the time I honestly love the show. It might be different if you're doing a straight play, but with comedy you really can play it differently every time. I love starting out with an audience and figuring out how you're going to play stuff for them.
WCT: So audiences are distinctly different?
MW: Oh, sure. The audiences here [ in Chicago ] are fantastic. However, there are a lot more variables in New York, and I guess that's because it's a tourist-driven show [ there ] . Anything that runs more than a few months is fueled by tourists, eventually.
So you get people who really know theater and then you get people who see us because other shows have sold out—and sometimes we convert them.
The line is that you don't have to know the shows to get the joke—but if you can come in with some knowledge of them, you're more on point. And Chicago audiences are so theater-savvy.
WCT: I came in not having seen too many musicals, but I got every joke.
MW: But you're theater-savvy; you know theater, in general. That's the goal—that you get it no matter what your level of theater-going is.
WCT: It seems that your background is primarily in comedy. Would you like to do drama?
MW: I would love to. I think that I'm thought of more as a comedian, though.
WCT: Your Harvey Fierstein is dead-on. How long did it take you to perfect that?
MW: I saw him do Hairspray, and he was brilliant. When Gerard [ Alessandrini, the creator of Forbidden Broadway ] wrote the Harvey part, I thought that I knew what [ Fierstein ] would be like, and somehow that voice comes really easily. You'd think that it would hurt, but it doesn't. The raspy voices are usually easy for me to do; it turns out that Harvey's voice isn't that different from Popeye's or Elaine Stritch's.
WCT: So when there's an update with the show, I imagine that [ Alessandrini ] comes in and shows you what he's written.
MW: That's exactly right. About every two years, he does an entirely new edition. When we go back to New York [ after July 29 ] , we're going to do something new. [ Note: Forbidden Broadway has been around for 25 years. ] If something is closed in New York, [ material related to the show ] won't work. And a bunch of new stuff—Tarzan, Spring Awakening—has just opened there.
When Gerard gives us a number, he knows that the number is an outline; it's not quite right yet. Then, we'll take it, work on it and perform it so he can see what is OK and what needs to be tweaked. Sometimes, though, we get something and know that Gerard has nailed it.
Gerard actually is not of pop culture, and when he's called to do pop-cultural things, it's sometimes a stretch for him. He's so single-minded when it comes to movies and theater; his knowledge is usually pretty [ encyclopedic ] . However, when we did Forbidden Vegas a couple years ago, he knew the older Vegas performers but he didn't know a single Elton John song, because that's not necessarily where his focus is.
WCT: What [ productions ] would you like the show to spoof?
MW: I really like Spring Awakening; it's really a great show. And, even though I haven't seen it yet, I imagine that Legally Blonde is going to be a lot of fun.
WCT: And there's always Equus.
MW: Oh, it's possible that [ Equus ] will be parodied—but that's some serious nakedness, isn't it? [ Laughs ]
Gerard has been doing this for 25 years. He was doing this back in 1982—back when Ethel Merman [ who was parodied ] was sitting in the audience. The parodies were star-driven back then, but now Broadway is more corporate-driven; Gerard has had to shift his focus since [ the '80s ] .
WCT: This show has been pretty well-acclaimed. Do you read reviews?
MW: Yeah. My feeling is that it's one person's opinion, but occasionally I've learned from a review—especially if there's a consistent thread through it. I may not agree with it, but it may [ enlighten me ] , especially if there's something I'm not aware of.
WCT: Now, besides comedy and music, the cast treats the audience to some skin. You have a couple shirtless scenes—and the ladies in front of me were whispering to each other at those times. I have to ask: What's your regimen?
MW: [ Smiles shyly ] I work out five to six days a week, and it's my private time. I look forward to it because it's when I'm by myself and can do my thing. I used to be a personal trainer in New York. [ Working out ] is where my secondary focus is.
Tickets to Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit are $39-$55. Contact the Royal George box office at 312-988-9000, or at Ticketmaster at 312-902-1500 or www.ticketmaster.com .
