The case of the Forbidden Broadway

It was a show I thought would never work. Slapstick re-calibrated to the iridescence and incandescence of musical theater. Keywords: “inflammatory” and “unfamiliar.” Like Tropang Trumpo meets Cabaret. And yet there I was, by the end of act one, laughing my brains out — every funny bone in my system activated. It was the closest thing we had to Book of Mormon, I would assume.

The show is Upstart Productions’ beaming production of Forbidden Broadway, which sh*ts (and sparkles) on everything from Wicked to Les Miserables, and yes, even on personalities like Barbara Streisand and Carol Channing. But alas, triumphs are not without their setbacks. In this case, the caveat of unfamiliarity. Fortunately, I knew my Broadway references but I’m sure others in the audience who kept quiet in some parts, and roared in others, did not.

All That Jizzle

Forbidden Broadway was originally written and directed for the stage by Gerard Alessandrini. A satirical off-Broadway cabaret revue that started in 1982, the show’s latest inception was Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab in early 2009. After a three-year hiatus, the show is slated to return this July to poke fun at Spider-Man the Musical and Ghost, among others. Yes, Unchained Melody sung in key. No comment.

Lorenz Martinez in a body suit, playing a cat from? Cats?

As for its structure, the wit and comedy are immensely ontological and culture-specific, meaning that it was probably designed and conceived for New Yorkers who have developed a degree of jadedness and cynicism to the flash-bang-curtain of 42nd street. “Finally, an alternative to cabarets and live comedy clubs,” reads a local theater review. Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote that it had the “barbed perkiness of a subversive cheerleading squad that’s more excited by fumbles than touchdowns.”

Cynical Psychology

So when Upstart Productions released the teaser of Forbidden Broadway here in Manila, I was quick to be a detractor. “The show will never work,” I said with conviction, and reasonable doubt. That it’s a satire presupposes that audiences will get all the references being made in the show. Case in point: Spamalot — a spoof of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It is a show that I aw twice on Broadway but one that has yet to be performed here locally. Tell me, how are audiences expected to catch on to this sketch if most of ‘em haven’t even seen it? And worse, that it’s a sketch of a sketch — a double-edged sword?

And then there are the caricatures. As a sparkly Liesl Batucan (clearly the four-man show’s runaway star), prances around onstage as a hammy, wide-eyed, and fumbling old lady with runs on her eye makeup and lipstick, or when award-winning actress Caisa Borromeo belts out a vibrato that resounds all the way to the shattering of your eardrums, you are expected to get that it’s Carol Channing and Broadway belter Ethel Merman. Thankfully, there are photos of the referenced actors being projected onscreen. But for the nature of the show that demands intelligence from its viewers, the projections are a white flag, really. And while summoning hearty laughter at best, is it mentally digestible?

And then, in another scene, both actresses converge, dressed in Latina apparel battling it out in a Chita Rivera-Rita Moreno “Who played Anita better?” West Side Story showdown. As an audience member, you laugh your lungs out but might miss the punchline. Clearly, the sketch doesn’t resonate culturally except maybe as a bitch fight between Mon Tulfo and Claudine Barreto x Raymart Santiago, or Miriam Quiambao and the gay community for that matter. That Chita Rivera who, played the role of Anita on Broadway, and Rita Moreno, who played the same role in the movie version and won an Oscar, have been pitted together in the past merits its inclusion in Forbidden Broadway… but maybe off-Broadway, and not off-off-off Broadway, a.k.a. Manila, unless the show aimed for laughs rather than enlightenment.

The show thus devolves into a series of sketches that works instead through their execution and Joel Trinidad’s keen direction. The actors’ collective bravura while tackling the faulty DNA of the show when performed overseas helps in the process. It is sketch after sketch of comedy minus explanation. At best, it is done during song in the style of Stephen Sondheim. But for the ballad-obsessed Filipino theatergoer, this is no explanation at all — only cacophony. It’s storytelling through shock and awe.

Caisa Borromeo channels Fantine in I Dreamed a Show

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

And then there’s actor Lorenz Martinez, who, like Liesl Batucan, has made his mark playing some of the best character roles onstage. He was riotous in the show — from playing a spandex-clad Jellicle cat (but then turns to I Enjoy Being a Girl from Flower Drum Song for his sketch’s melodic base… odd!), to dancing and singing alongside Caisa Borromeo and theater leading man OJ Mariano in “Saucy Fosse” which parodied Bob Fosse’s quirky, disjointed style.

Again, the actors deserve commendation here. They were given the Herculean task of poking fun at Broadway culture foreign to Manila audiences, and in “Saucy Fosse’s” case, performing Bob Fosse’s iconic style of dancing while maintaining a smug comedic face. Skits of this nature still needed to be danced with precision though, which the trio of Caisa, Lorenz, and OJ were able to do, extremely well.

OJ Mariano’s Phantom of the Opera suite also served as one of the show’s highlights, as well as Caisa Borromeo’s bastardly ode to Defying Gravity. How she transforms into the green Elphaba within seconds is stage magic and incomparable comedy that one ought to see. Her sketch of On My Own, which in this case became On My Phone is also commendable. But perhaps, OJ and Caisa, two of Philippine theater’s rising stars in the leading man and leading lady category, found themselves at a slight disadvantage in this piece, given that it resonated more with character actors like Liesl and Lorenz. The two have mastered the tricks of this particular trade through decades of character role experience. Let’s not forget Liesl’s hilarious riff on Annie 30 years later. She lights up a cigarette in the process of spewing Tomorrow while still dressed in her li’l orphan frock and auburn curls. Thirty-never? Tyra would not be pleased.

Gwen Verdict (Pun On Gwen Verdon? No? Exactly!)

But, sans the unfamiliarity of sketches, Forbidden Broadway emerged in last Thursday’s preview night as something audiences should get their hands on. There is courage here that ought to be celebrated — from Trinidad’s attempt to bring something new and out-of-the-box to the table, to the celebrity guest performers in each show (the likes of Lea Salonga, Noel Trinidad and Jett Pangan), and overall, the skill and talent by which the four actors quick changed their way out of sketches, rewired their mindsets, and plowed through the sketches.

That when Jay-Z (with Alicia Keys) celebrates the concrete jungles of NYC in Empire State of Mind, he may have actually been inspired by the courageous actors of Forbidden Broadway when he followed it up with “On to the Next One, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.” Caisa, OJ, Liesl and Lorenz barreled through with the technical know-how, proficiency and soul that certain artistas who cross over to theater scene don’t immediately have. Hey, they’ve earned it. And as for Forbidden Broadway Manila, it is far from its Forbidden Broadway counterpart in NYC but it’s a good start, or rather, upstart.

* * *

For tickets and inquiries, call Upstart Productions at 0917-5285678, Ticketworld at 891-9999, or email upstarttickets@gmail.com.