BWW Reviews: Funny Parodies Rule MTW's FORBIDDEN BROADWAY 2, Ends 4/29

Full of biting wit and downright funny parodies of various popular Broadway shows—and the famous actors that star in them—Musical Theatre West's cabaret-style send-up FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: GREATEST HITS, VOLUME 2 plays its final, laugh-filled set of performances this weekend ending April 29 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.

Much like the first "volume" of Forbidden Broadway that MTW mounted a few years ago, this equally-amusing sequel affectionately skewers many current and past Broadway hits and stage personalities—and does so with a cast of four very skilled actors that morph from one character to another with such ease almost instantaneously: Larry Raben (THE PRODUCERS), David Engel (SEUSSICAL, LA CAGE), Susanne Blakeslee (a veteran of the FORBIDDEN BROADWAY companies Off-Broadway and at MTW), and Valerie Fagan (The Addams Family).

In various combinations and solo moments, the foursome entertain—in a dizzying non-stop rapid-fire sequence—with one gleeful parody after another. The pointed yet still fairly benign mockery is often hilarious without being too mean-spirited. The magical transformations happens just beyond the edges of the wings (and, at times, right on stage!), as the cast morphs into each new character with quick costume changes and the donning of a few carefully selected wigs.

They're also joined on-stage by hard working music director Matthew Smedal, who provides musical accompaniment behind a grand piano downstage (he too gets to sing an adorable song mid-way in the show). The subjects of their sketches range from ubiquitous shows Beauty and the Beast, Rent, and Annie, to populist phenoms The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, and The Sound of Music. Even Broadway personalities Mandy Patinkin, Idina Menzel, Liza Minnelli, Carol Channing and Ethel Merman get lampooned with side-splitting results.

While a scant few sketches outstay their one-joke trick, most of the parodies are genuine gut-busting gems. Highlights include a production number that features freshly-out Ricky Martin (played by Raben) singing a hip-swiveling ode to his current role in the Broadway revival of Evita  titled, naturally, "Living EVITA Loca" to the squeals of both women and men in the audience; a proposed "Part 2" lost sequel for The Sound of Music that finds young Nazi Rolf chasing Maria (played by Blakeslee) and the Von Trapp family in America, and a sketch that finds the morosely-smudged actors of Les Misérables having to master the intricacies of the show's infamous turntable.

The body of work from musical theater greats Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber also gets the FORBIDDEN BROADWAY tongue-in-cheek treatment as well: the former for the head-scratching complexity of his "wordy" lyrics, and the latter for his shows' unabashed, over-dramatic histrionics.

Webber gets slapped around quite a bit, actually: the sight of the four actors doing Cats a lá A Chorus Line is a hoot—coupled with their frequent refrain that the show is mostly reviled... this despite the fact that MTW mounted its own production of the very musical just last season. They also perform "I Sleep With Everyone" sung to the tune of "Love Changes Everything" from Webber's cheeky re-envisioned Aspects of LUST.

And during the show's opening night performance, I quietly applauded the cast's bravery to myself as I sat behind actor Davis Gaines—a frequent MTW cast member that is also credited for turning in the most performances in the title role in The Phantom of the Opera—leaning forward watching this production's silly spoof of Webber's most famous musical and the "heavy-breathing" quality of its title character.

But more than anything, what these funny vignettes do best is reveal each actor's ability to do spot-on impersonations. Engel does a really funny caricature of the allegedly forgetful Robert Goulet, while Raben ratchets up the grand gestures and over-acting as "self-indulgent" Mandy Patinkin (a number revived from MTW's first FORBIDDEN volume). But the show, honestly, really belongs to the two impressive women in the cast.

Michael Lawrence Quintos is a quiet, mild-mannered Art Director by day. But as night falls, he regularly performs on various stages everywhere as a Counter-Tenor soloist, actor, and dancer for The Men Alive Chorus since 2002. He's sung everything from Broadway, Jazz, R&B, Classical, Gospel and Pop. His musical theater roots started early, performing in various school musical productions and a couple of nationally-televised programs. The performing bug eventually brought him a brief championship run in the Philippines' version of "Star Search" before moving to Las Vegas at age 11. College brought him out to Orange County, California, where he earned a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in Film Screenwriting. He has spent several years as a designer and art director for various entertainment company clients, while spending his free time watching or performing in shows. Follow Michael on Twitter at: twitter.com/cre8iveMLQ.

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