Gerard Alessandrini is a director, writer, composer, producer, and creator of the musical theatre parody review series FORBIDDEN BROADWAY.  As a singer, he can be heard on five of the FORBIDDEN BROADWAY cast albums and on the soundtracks of Disney’s animated films Aladdin and Pocahontas.  Directorial credits aside from FORBIDDEN BROADWAY include: Maury Yeston’s IN THE BEGINNING (1998), ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE THEATRE: THE MUSICAL WORLD OF MAURY YESTON (2019) and a politically re-written version of Irving berlin’s MR. PRESIDENT (2001).  He created, wrote and directed SPAMILTON: AN AMERICAN PARODY (2016), a spoof of the musical Hamilton, which earned him the Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience as well as many nominations including Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and AUDELCO.  He co-created the musical comedy, THE NUTCRACKER AND I (music by Tchaikovsky, book by Peter Brash and lyrics by Alessandrini).  In 1991, he co-wrote, directed and performed in the television parody of Masterpiece Theatre for which he was able to get Alistair Cooke to join him.  Alessandrini also wrote television sketches for the comedy specials of Carol Burnett (CBS), Bob Hope and Angela Lansbury (NBC) and a few special lyrics for Barbara Streisand’s Duets II album.  His book, Behind the Mylar Curtain, contains the lyrics to many of the FORBIDDEN BROADWAY productions.  He received a Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre Award, an Obie Award, four Drama Desk Awards (including Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics and Drama Desk Special Award), an Outer Critics Circle Award, and two Lucille Lortel Awards, as well as a Drama League Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.

Gerard Alessandrini grew up in a family involved in opera and was expected to be an opera singer.  His first contact with ‘theater’ was the opera and he attended often with his family.  He loved the librettos as well as the music.  But when Gerard and his parents attended the Boston “road show” movie extravaganza films of the 1960s like The Music Man, My Fair Lady and The Sound Of Music, he became obsessed with Broadway musicals. After seeing My Fair Lady, he got a copy of Shaw’s Pygmalion and studied how one was made from the other.  He had already been writing lyrics to operas he didn’t understand the foreign languages of, based on the emotion of the music, later to be disappointed when he read the actual translations. All this from the age of seven. He also loved the Viennese operettas that influenced the music of Frederick Loewe and the lyrics of Alan J. Lerner. Stephen Sondheim was another early favorite of Gerard’s and inspired Alessandrini throughout his career. Gerard first met Sondheim at the Boston tryout of Follies in 1971.  After studying music and drama at The Boston Conservatory of Music, Gerard moved to New York City to pursue a career in the theater. Unable to get cast as a non-union actor in New York City, he performed many roles in summerstock, dinner theater, and regional theater and sang at The Light Opera Of Manhattan.  While on tour he met Nora Mae Lyng, a leading musical theater actress, and in 1981 he partnered with her and pianist Fred Barton to create the first version of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY. It was first presented at Palsson’s Super Club in November of 1981. Gerard wrote the eye-brow raising parody lyrics and performing in the show with Nora and Fred. He later added two talented friends, Bill Carmichael and Chloe Webb, to the cast. The musical revue opened officially in January of 1982, and was a tremendous Off-Broadway hit. Gerard revised and updated the revue over many years, reflecting each Broadway season. A west coast version, FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD, was also created and later brought to New York at The Triad Theatre.