<b>FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: The Next Generation</b> Shea's 710 Theatre SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Through February 16
FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: The Next Generation Shea’s 710 Theatre

By Augustine Warner

There’s a wonderful tour of twisted theater history on the stage of Shea’s 710 Theater, a stage which has seen its share of local theater history.
It’s the comic and entertaining road show of “Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation,” parodies of life on The Great White Way and of some of the great stars of the stage.
One fine sketch is Liza Minnelli, a star multiple times on the Shea’s Mainstage, a few doors away.
She has also had incredible personal problems, from her parents through her husbands and addictions.
“Forbidden Broadway” is working with four performers, strong singers and dancers, on-stage are Chris Collins-Pisano, Kevin B. McGlynn, Gina Kreiezmar and Katheryne Penny and pianist Catherine Stornetta.
A lot of this is late-night bar talk: What happens to Annie later in life?
That’s where Kreiezmar comes in to show Annie developed a bad smoking habit and put on a lot of weight, although still preferring red dresses.
There are also the mandatory shots at the career they have chosen, with costumed McGlynn’s Tevye in a parody of the legendary opening number from “Fiddler on the Roof,” the song of “Tradition.”
Here, it’s “Ambition,” with a claimed 50,000 performers dreaming of that spot center stage under the spotlight.
The entire show is a tribute to an often-ignored part of the theater scene, the dressers backstage who help the cast through the whirling costume changes and wig changes which make this all work with only the four cast members.
As an example, as they shift among the songs and routines from “Les Miserables,” with songs somewhat related to this tale of the eternal hunt of a troubled Paris cop.
The cast also goes from quick shot at shows or performers to deeper (altered) looks at Broadway mainstays like Stephen Sondheim and his varied group of legendary musicals.
The show may have been “Into the Woods,” although the number here is “Into the Words,” with Sondheim’s constant word plays.
The cast also works over “Jersey Boys,” that look at The Four Seasons, a group known for the sudden high voices which seemed ads for helium and their Jersey mob friends.
The key to this show is the adaptability of the cast, like Collins-Pisano’s body flexibility and Penny’s soaring soprano and strong dancing all the way through.
Do you have to be a musicals person to see and enjoy the show?
No.
It’s a great show and even if you aren’t sure who Bernadette Peters is, you will get the idea.
“Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation” is a paean to Broadway and its performers and it’s just a great show.