All the shows that I have seen lately with capsule reviews

It's been a while since I have put my reviews here and I've been seeing a bunch of shows so I thought I would just put them all together in one large post starting with the oldest first so here goes;

I first saw  "Forbidden Broadway" way back in 1982 at the then Paulson's Supper Club on 72nd and Broadway. It had me in stitches then.  Each number was as fresh as a new bright morning. WE (everyone) had never experienced such a mean, nasty, gossipy show that expressed our love/hate of the theater. With it's over the top (maybe!) takes on theater legends like Ethel Merman and Patti LuPone and even Stephen Sondheim, this was THE insider's guide to New York Musical Theater and everyone came (including Merman, LuPone and Sondheim) to laugh.

Over the years material ripe for satire became awfully thin and an occasional visit was all that was needed.  Some skits continues to work (I still laughed at their take on "Les Miz"), but others fell flat.  There was just not enough humor to mine. In the past few years, the Broadway musical theater became a parody of itself. Perhaps the nadir was the show "Spamalot" which seemed to be emulating "Forbidden Broadway" itself, so much so that several recent editions used a song from that show 'whole'. "FB's" was no longer comic fringe, but mainstream.  Crappy shows like "The Producers" and "Young Frankenstein" and even good shows like "Hairspray" were just extensions of the knowing, winking camp eye.  Their were no outsiders, laughing at the pretension of those inside.  

Now "Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab"  is to be the last (at least for a while) and it's easy to see why.  While I Loved, Loved Loved this edition, I also realized that was only funny to a dwindling group of people.  In order for the satire to work most of the audience really has to not just get it, but has to care about the subjects being satirized, and that's just not the case anymore.  I (we) know that Patti LuPone (again after all these years!) is a way over-the-top personality with perhaps a monstrous ego, and that's what I (we) love and adore about her, but frankly the tourists who now make up 75% of the audience have no idea nor do they care.

With very few exceptions ("Spring Awakenings" wonderfully inventive staging is perfect for parody),  making fun of theater has become a harder and harder task. Now when the Broadway theater faces it's most depressing period (In Jan. 09 6-8 shows are closing and very few are coming in), maybe a long stint in rehab might just work.