Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song Tickets

By: Gerard Alessandrini
Songs by: Gerard Alessandrini, based on the works of various artists
Director: Gerard Alessandrini
Choreography: Gerry McIntyre
Cast list: Danny Hayward, Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, Chris Collins-Pisano, Jenny Lee Stern, Fred Barton (as pianist)
Sets: Glenn Bassett
Costumes: Dustin Cross
Lighting: Joan Racho-Jansen
Sound: Andy Evan Cohen
Other info: Music direction by Fred Barton, hair and wig design by Ian Joseph

Kind of like Saturday Night Live for Broadway, Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song is this 2024 edition of a long-standing tradition of beloved plays and musicals getting the royal (sarcastic) treatment. The Great Gatsby, Back to the Future, and The Wiz are all riffed on, as is, of course, the Tony-winning Merrily We Roll Along, from which this year’s production borrows its title.

Beloved songs are sung — and stung. Not even their singers are safe: jokes about this season’s biggest stars, including Roger Bart, Patti LuPone, Daniel Radcliffe, Ariana DeBose, and Jeremy Jordan, overflow throughout the evening. Even the 2024 Tony Awards themselves are not safe. At this annual event, a theatrical destination since 1982, all’s fair in love and satire.

An award-winning sensation, Forbidden Broadway doesn’t just jest, it’s got the goods to back it up. Over the decades, it’s won seven Drama Desk Awards, an Obie, and a Special Tony Award. Now you can be a part of its history.

What to watch for

• Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song will feature performers Chris Collins-Pisano and Jenny Lee Stern with musical director Fred Barton on piano.
• Gerard Alessandrini, the creator of Forbidden Broadway, directs this edition. Alessandrini and Forbidden Broadway have earned awards from every major theatrical awards society in New York.
• The show was announced on Broadway this year but then had to change plans; audiences were left waiting, but fortunately the production was able to move off Broadway. "I am thrilled that this latest incarnation of the show that I had been preparing for more than a year, can now open Off-Broadway, where Forbidden Broadway has felt at home for over 40 years," Alessandrini said in a statement.
• If you love this season’s Broadway shows, you’ll be in for a treat, but even if you haven’t seen them, you’ll still feel right at home: it’s a nonjudgmental and boisterous crowd, and big celebs you certainly know will factor into the evening’s satire.