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DIVA TALK: Chatting with the Forbidden Broadway Cast Plus Hair at the Delacorte
By Andrew Gans
28 Sep 2007
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Valerie Fagan and Janet Dickinson in Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening
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| photo by Carol Rosegg | News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.
FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: RUDE AWAKENING
I've really lost count of how many times I've seen and thoroughly enjoyed Forbidden Broadway, the brilliant, loving roast of Broadway that Gerard Alessandrini created a mind-boggling 25 years ago. During that time the revue has featured a host of actors who would go on to Broadway fame, including Barbara Walsh, Bryan Batt, Daniel Reichard, Jason Alexander, Christine Pedi, Brad Oscar, Dee Hoty, Davis Gaines, Alix Korey and David Hibbert, among others. To celebrate the revue's 25th anniversary, I thought it would be fun to chat with the current cast of Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening, which offers spoofs of Spring Awakening, Curtains, A Chorus Line, "Grease: You're The One That I Want," Legally Blonde, Frost/Nixon, Mary Poppins, Company and Grey Gardens and officially opens at the 47th Street Theatre Oct. 2. I posed the same set of questions to each talented performer.
Janet Dickinson
Hometown: Bemidji, MN
New York stage debut: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Favorite Broadway musical: Sweeney Todd
Your audition process for Forbidden Broadway: The first time I auditioned for Forbidden Broadway, I worked up a whole medley of impersonations — Julie Andrews, Carol Channing, Bernadette Peters, Bebe Neuwirth. I felt pretty good about the audition — they hired the actress who auditioned after me. Subsequently, they hired me to do a gig in Detroit. After that they were destined for a Boston gig. I came in to audition for the creative team. We waited for Gerard to show up. After a while, the rest of the team decided to have me go ahead and audition. It went very well. Then, Gerard walked in the door. I had to do the whole audition over again! Happily, they cast me.
Forbidden Broadway editions in which you've appeared: Forbidden Broadway: SVU (Boston); Forbidden Christmas (Detroit); Forbidden Broadway (Milwaukee); Forbidden Broadway: Roast of Utopia (New York).
Who you're impersonating in Rude Awakening: Christine Ebersole from Grey Gardens, Charlotte d'Amboise from A Chorus Line, Barbara Walsh from Company, Christine Estabrook from Spring Awakening, Donna Murphy from LoveMusik, Sierra Boggess from Little Mermaid, Laura Bell Bundy from Legally Blonde.
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James Donegan, Valerie Fagan and Janet Dickinson in Forbidden Broadway
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| photo by Carol Rosegg |
The impersonation that you enjoy doing the most: Carol Channing. She is such a terrific character. It's fun to paint her impersonation with broad strokes because the person, Carol Channing, is larger than life in a wonderful way. Currently, I am really enjoying my Christine Ebersole number. She came to see the show one night and stayed afterwards to meet the cast. She was so gracious. I was nervous to do "Christine" in front of Christine Ebersole, but no one has laughed more at the Grey Gardens number than she did that night.
Most memorable onstage mishap: The great thing about live theatre is that something different happens every night! I might get in trouble for divulging this story, but one night we were doing a Sound of Music sketch, and the actor playing Rolf read his lines as Regis Philbin. Of course, he was trying to crack up the actors on stage. I was playing Maria. I patiently waited for him to finish his lines so I could deliver my lines — which I did as Regis Philbin!
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Valerie Fagan
Hometown: Overland Park, KS . . . and, yes, everything was in black and white back then.
New York stage debut: I wrote a musical in college called Six Women With Brain Death, and we performed it at Steve McGraw's — now the Triad.
Favorite Broadway musical: Sweeney Todd. I still get chills when I hear that whistle scream at the top of the show. Brilliant.
Your audition process for Forbidden Broadway: It was wonderfully cracked, but I think I got FB because I did a warped imitation of Julie Andrews singing "I was spawned in a ditch by a mother who left me there...I'm only Aldonza the whore."
Forbidden Broadway editions in which you've appeared: SVU. I love that the show starts with Annie's execution. Gerard is hilariously twisted!
Who you're impersonating in Rude Awakening: Ethel Merman, Melanie Griffith, Liza, Mary Poppins, Eponine, Idina Menzel, Tracy Turnblad, Wendla and, of course, John Lloyd Young (who recently gave me some great Frankie Valli tips).
The impersonation that you enjoy doing the most: Eponine — one of my first jobs out of college was touring in Les Miz. I always wanted to play Eponine, but let's face it...I'll never be a "waif."
Most memorable onstage mishap: I was playing Elsa in The Sound of Music, and the actor playing the Captain went up on a line and left the stage — he just walked off! In my adrenaline induced horror, I rambled an entire back story of how Max and I were Nazi spies and had to locate the blueprint of Austria's new secret weapon, which was hidden somewhere in the children's bedroom. Seriously, this really happened.
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Jared Thomas Bradshaw
Hometown: McDonough, GA
New York stage debut: Everybody's favorite Alfred Kinsey musical, Dr. Sex, at the Peter Norton Space on 42nd Street.
Favorite Broadway musical: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It has everything: a lead baritone, Sondheim, laughs, blood, and it opened the year I was born. What more could you ask for, really?
Your audition process for Forbidden Broadway: Well, I had prepared since I was in high school, singing along with the FB cast albums. After three years in New York, I finally got called in, after sending in a picture of me with Carol Channing. They knew I was serious! Then I had a 30-minute first audition, and two weeks later, a 30-minute callback. I wrote down 15 a cappella "vocal impressions" on a note card and started doing them. They made me do them all! They were random, too: Elvis Presley, Kermit the Frog, Frankie Valli, Gwen Verdon, Mandy Patinkin, Norbert Leo Butz, Mickey Mouse, Bing Crosby, Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Colm Wilkinson, Harvey Fierstein, Hugh Jackman, The Phantom... I also was lucky to get recommendations from the wonderful Jen Simard, Felicia Finley and Bill Selby.
Forbidden Broadway editions in which you've appeared: Forbidden Broadway: SVU in New York, Chicago and San Diego, and random road gigs everywhere from Osh Kosh, WI, to Las Vegas, NV.
Who you're impersonating in Rude Awakening: David Hyde Pierce/Curtains, Cheyenne Jackson/Xanadu, Jonathan Groff/Spring Awakening, Christian Hoff/Jersey Boys, Bob Martin/Drowsy Chaperone, John Travolta/"Hairspray" film, Christopher Sieber/Spamalot, Colm Wilkinson/Les Misérables, Rafiki/Lion King, Flying Monkey/Wicked, Mandy Patinkin....
The impersonation that you enjoy doing the most: Cheyenne is fun for the dancing on roller skates, but Jonathan Groff is the part that I look forward to nightly. He's a friend, and I've seen him do the show five times, so I have some specific details I've gotten to add in over the summer. I can't wait for him to see it! Since I don't look like a teenager, it's my one chance to "be" in Spring Awakening! With a show and performance as specific as Jonathan's is, it's the kind of parody Gerard writes best.
Most memorable onstage mishap: In previews earlier this month: "Going up"/forgetting lyrics in sync with the entire cast on the first night of a new number. In front of a New York audience? Priceless.
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James Donegan
Hometown: Seguin, TX (near San Antonio)
New York stage debut: Babes in Toyland - "Peter Pumpkin Eater" with Little Orchestra Society at Avery Fisher Hall
Favorite Broadway musical: Into the Woods
Your audition process for Forbidden Broadway: I auditioned for FB five years ago and wasn't even called back the first time. I am lucky enough to be involved in a number of new musicals, and FB creator Gerard Alessandrini heard me perform some songs at the BMI Lehman Engel musical writer's workshop last spring. From that, he called me in for an additional audition. I spent 20 minutes with them doing four of my own songs and a bunch of impressions (which I had never tried before). Two days later, I got a call asking if I could start rehearsals immediately for the special summer edition of Forbidden Broadway: The Roast of Utopia.
Forbidden Broadway editions in which you've appeared: The Roast of Utopia: Special Summer Edition.
Who you're impersonating in Rude Awakening: Raul Esparza; Harvey Fierstein; John Gallagher, Jr.; Brian F. O'Byrne.
The impersonation that you enjoy doing the most: Raul Esparza, hands down.
Most memorable onstage mishap: [Playing] Harvey Fierstein seems riddled with difficulty — it's a tough costume change. I have lost beads, earrings, you name it. I had to pick up a broken chair on stage one night. Thankfully, the characters in this show can do anything — the audience loves it when things go wrong, so I just acknowledge it, we laugh, and I go on.
[Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening plays the 47th Street Theatre, located in Manhattan at 304 West 47th Street. For tickets call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com.] Continued...
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