Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...We like that everyone in this show (loved that vicious take on Robert Goulet, Michael West) could be in the cast of the shows they're spoofing. We like that this edition of the show, which played New York for months, is tighter than the purse strings at the Goodman."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Forbidden Broadway (zestfully co-directed by Alessandrini and Phillip George) is both revue and playfully savage review. And not only does it give a much-needed needling to the excesses and shortfalls of New York's commercial stage, but it does so with actors who can easily hold their own beside the "stars" they mock."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...This long-running spot-on, off-Broadway satire of Broadway's biggest musicals is a laugh-fest from start to finish."
SouthtownStar - Highly Recommended
"...Forbidden Broadway is so good that one wishes that Gerard Alessandrini, the creator and writer of the show, could just leave this production in an open run here, and then mount another presentation for the Big Apple."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...This hilarious musical comedy revue might offend sticklers for tradition--people who don't want to see an aged Annie smoking or a drag queen portray Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. But those who enjoy the goring of sacred cows won't be able to stop laughing."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...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."
Chicago Free Press - Recommended
"...Cunning as the material are the players’ wicked caricatures and Alvin Cort’s brilliant costumes. Michael West convulses as a senile Robert Goulet who confuses the wrong tunes with the wrong lyrics. Mather’s Yoko is as transparently phony as her Mary Poppins. Fagan’s Minelli is Liza with a zero and her Brooke Shields in “Chicago” and Sarah Brightman’s soprano are nightmares come true. In the finale, a salute to Ethel Merman, an Irving Berlin classic and Fagan’s deft impersonation of the leather-lunged legend put everything in perspective: Why has Broadway sunk so far beneath its standards? Happily, “Forbidden Broadway” delivers the contrasts that kill."
Gay Chicago Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...You don’t have to know the musicals inside and out to enjoy “Forbidden Broadway,” but being familiar with them certainly helps. I’ve never seen “Light in the Piazza” or “Spamalot” or “Jersey Boys,” and it didn’t hinder the creator’s intent in any way. So if you’re a professional musical theater queen or just an amateur, I’d highly recommending spending the $35 ticket price for one helluva a fun night at the theatre."
EpochTimes - Highly Recommended
"...They say that laughter is good for what ails you- if this is true ( and I think it is) we should gather up all the ailing people in this world and bring them to The Royal George Cabaret for one of the funniest musical revues I have ever seen, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...while some material has exceeded its sell-by date, you don’t have to be as big a musical-theater geek as the author to appreciate what he’s really gunning for: a culture increasingly prizing insta-stars, big-buck glitz and self-referential parodies over artistic worth."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"... Forbidden Broadway keeps the material fresh, energetic and fast-paced. This is a fine evening out for couples and groups of musical theatre lovers. Laughs aplenty in this polished show featuring four super-talents."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...For musical theatre junkies like me, "Forbidden Broadway" has always been manna from on high. For half the price of one Broadway in Chicago show you can see about 20 lovingly lampooned in the cozy Royal George Cabaret Theatre. The show is both homage and roast, wicked, yes, and of course perceptive."
