- FORBIDDEN PASSION FORBIDDEN LOVE TAKE ME TONIGHT HOW TO
- FORBIDDEN PASSION FORBIDDEN LOVE TAKE ME TONIGHT SERIES
Backing it with just a piano fits the concept of gleeful underdogs flinging well-placed stones at their supposed betters. “If it’s done right, the show is based on a David and Goliath principle, with singers you’ve never heard of making fun of stars,” he said.
FORBIDDEN PASSION FORBIDDEN LOVE TAKE ME TONIGHT HOW TO
“Playing eight nights a week with my brain alert gave me my career,” he said of his work as accompanist for “Forbidden Broadway.” He learned how to musically embellish a joke, when to help the actors by adding humorous musical flourishes, and when to just stay out of the way. He joined the show when it came to his hometown, Boston, in the mid-1980s, then he moved on to the mother ship in New York.
FORBIDDEN PASSION FORBIDDEN LOVE TAKE ME TONIGHT SERIES
She sings the role of Cruella De Vil in a direct-to-video offshoot of “101 Dalmatians,” and, staying on the villain’s tack for Disney, she has played Cinderella’s stepmother and the evil queen in “Snow White.” She has an ongoing gig as the voice of an enchanted goldfish on the weekly Nickelodeon series “The Fairly Oddparents.” Meanwhile, she is “gathering up the courage” to pursue a longer-range ambition-a one-woman cabaret show in which she would play a series of characters, a la Lily Tomlin, but with singing.įor Ellis, “Forbidden Broadway” has been a lifeline. Some alumni of “Forbidden Broadway” also have enjoyed success on legit Broadway-among them Jason Graae, who will perform next month in OCPAC’s cabaret series, and Brad Oscar, a recent Tony nominee for his part in “The Producers.”īlakeslee says her closest brush to Broadway legitimacy came in the early 1990s when she was asked to be an understudy for a revival of “Guys and Dolls.” She had to turn it down she was already booked in “Forbidden Broadway.”īut the talents she has cultivated on the “Forbidden” side of the tracks have served her well in her new main pursuit doing the voices of animated characters.
It takes real skill to sing badly enough to be funny, but not badly enough to turn people off, she says. “I guess it’s an acquired taste and probably thousands of people love her and she’s probably a very nice person.” None of which stops Blakeslee from taking “great joy” in her performance as an almost unlistenable Brightman. “I admit I don’t find Sarah Brightman much of a talent,” Blakeslee said. “The real great people don’t mind being spoofed at all, because they know it’s a reflection of their greatness.” You gain respect for these people.” And typically they are good sports. “But I went back and listened to her and realized how brilliant she is. She wasn’t very keen on Streisand when she began learning to copy her looks and style. One of the pleasures of performing in “Forbidden Broadway,” Blakeslee says, is that “you can do these leading-lady roles even though you’re not quite the leading-lady type.” She says that learning to mimic breeds admiration, rather than contempt. Her repertoire of impressions includes Barbra Streisand, Carol Channing, Julie Andrews and, with hilarious, squeaky-voiced nastiness, Sarah Brightman. Blakeslee got the job, and soon she was imitating big stars, just as she had done as a small girl. In 1986, she was scuffling for work on the New York City theater scene when her mother called with the news that “Forbidden Broadway” was holding auditions for an extended run in Washington, D.C. cast members and decided to stay Blakeslee made some great friends and stayed too.īoth have been performing in periodic West Coast revivals of “Forbidden Broadway” and in its 1995 offshoot, “Forbidden Hollywood.” Ellis and Blakeslee play prominent parts on a new CD, “Forbidden Broadway: 20th Anniversary Edition,” that adds eight newly recorded parodies to highlights from five previous albums in the series.īlakeslee, who grew up in northern Virginia, says she owes it all to her mom. The actress and the pianist didn’t expect to be giving their last regards to Broadway, but it turned out that way. When “Forbidden Broadway” played Los Angeles in 1994, New Yorkers Ellis and Blakeslee came with it. Creator Gerard Allessandrini and his cohorts revise it regularly to reflect the foibles, follies, flops, fatuousness and fabulousness unfolding on the Great White Way.
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