Forbidden Broadway: Behind the Mylar Curtain (136 page)

Top: Gerard and Whoopi Goldberg.
Bottom: Rosie O'Donnell and 1996
cast.

Top: Ethel Merman signs the Annie Get
Your Gun cast album for Nora. Bottom:
Joan Rivers and the FB company.

Top: Christine Ebersole and the cast of
Forbidden Broadway: RudeAwakening.
Middle: Mary Tyler Moore visits with the
1985 cast. Bottom: Cheyenne Jackson
sandwiched by our Xanadudes.

Top: Carol Burnett and our company.
Bottom: Gerard with two great ladies of
musical theater: Carol Charming and
Chita Rivera.

Top: Stephen Sondheim surrounded by the
cast of Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab.
Middle: Lin-Manuel Miranda with Michael
West as his FB incarnation. Bottom: Elaine
Stritch with Roxie Lucas as Elaine.

Gerard Alessandrini is best known for creating, writing, and directing all the editions
of Forbidden Broadway and Forbidden Hollywood in New York, Los Angeles, London,
and all around the world. He was also a member of the original cast of Forbidden
Broadway. Alessandrini hails from Needham, Massachusetts, and the Boston area,
where he graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music. In 1982, he created and
wrote Forbidden Broadway, which has spawned twenty editions and ten cast albums
(DRG Records). His television credits include writing comedy specials for Bob Hope
and Angela Lansbury (NBC) and Carol Burnett (CBS); he also wrote "Masterpiece Tonight" (PBS), a satirical revue saluting Masterpiece Theatre's twentieth anniversary. He
has written articles for the New York Times and many other notable publications, and
he contributed reviews to The TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theatre Recordings. As a
performer, he has had featured singing roles in Disney's animated film classics Aladdin
and Pocahontas; he can also be heard on four of the nine Forbidden Broadway cast
albums. Alessandrini's directing credits include many industrials for ABC-TV, Canada
Dry, Mobil, and American Express, as well as a regional production of MauryYeston's
musical In the Beginning, the Equity Library Theatre revival of Lerner and Loewe's
Gigi, and the Brooklyn Opera Company production of Mozart's Abduction from the
Seraglio. In the summer of 2001, he co-directed a production of Irving Berlin's last
musical, Mr. President, which he also updated and "politically corrected." Among his
many other credits are an evening of his original theatrical songs (music and lyrics)
entitled Tonight We Sing. He is the recipient of an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle
Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and multiple Drama Desk Awards (Best Lyrics) for
Forbidden Broadway; a lifetime achievement award from the Drama League; and a
2006 special Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre.

Michael Portantiere has been a theatre journalist for more than thirty years, having
worked as an editor and/or writer for such media as In Theatre magazine, Back Stage, TheaterMania.com, Playbill, and Stagebill. He edited and contributed reviews to
The TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theatre Recordings, published in 2004 by Back
Stage Books. Michael also wrote the liner notes for recordings of Little Me (Varese
Sarabande), The Most Happy Fella (JAY Records), and Sweeney Todd (the New York
Philharmonic recording, starring George Hearn and Patti LuPone). In his career as
a journalist, he has interviewed scores of theatre notables, including Julie Andrews,
Angela Lansbury, Jerry Herman, Kristin Chenoweth, and Raul Esparza. Currently,
Portantiere is an adjunct theatre professor at Wagner College, a regular columnist for
BroadwayStars.com, a frequent contributor to AfterElton.com, and a professional
photographer whose photos have appeared in the New York Times, the Daily News,
and many other media outlets. (His work may be sampled at FollowSpotPhoto.com.)
He holds an M.A. in Theatre Education from New York University.

Carol Rosegg is a very lucky person. She lives in NewYork City with her family and gets
to photograph theatre, dance, and opera all over the country. What could be better!

Henry Grossman wanted to be an actor. He studied photography at a vocational high
school in order to support himself between acting jobs, and won a theatre scholarship
to Brandeis University. He began taking pictures for Time, Life, and Newsweek, and
contributed to People magazine while acting on Broadway in Grand Hotel. Grossman
also sang at the Met for two years as a principal artist (tenor). He is currently completing his second photo book on the Beatles. His subjects have included Richard Burton
and Elizabeth Taylor, Gielgud, Kirk Douglas, JFK, LBJ, Nelson Mandela, Luciano Pavarotti, Maria Callas, and Forbidden Broadway.

Ken Fallin was still wet behind the ears in 1983 when Forbidden Broadway creator Gerard Alessandrini discovered him singing, dancing, and drawing caricatures in Shubert
Alley. At that fateful moment, it was decided that Fallin would always and forever create the caricature images that became the graphic symbol of Forbidden Broadway all
over the universe. More than twenty-five years later, his involvement continues with
the current London revival of the show proudly displaying the newest Fallin drawings
to promote that production. Luck, wit, and a razor-sharp pen have enabled Fallin to
land exciting commissions, illustrating for such major venues as the Boston Herald,
the Chicago Tribune, Ladies'HomeJournal, InStyle, Showtime, American Express, BMG
records, Disney, Belvedere Vodka, and CNBC. Some Broadway names who possess
their own Fallin caricatures are Carol Charming, Frank Langella, Patti LuPone, Brian
Dennehy, Lypsinka, Cameron Mackintosh, Barbara Cook, Bette Midler, Charles Busch,
and Bernadette Peters. Since 1994, the Wall StreetJournal has regularly featured Fallin's
witty and stylish caricatures of world leaders and artistic icons on the Editorial and Arts
and Leisure pages. To see more of his work, please visit www.kenfallin.com.