COMEDY IN ORANGE COUNTY : Their Bloody Valentine Is Sent to the Great American Musical

In early 1982, “Forbidden Broadway” opened quietly in the upstairs cabaret room of Palsson’s, a restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The revue skewered Broadway’s sacred cow--the American musical--and became a cultish pleasure for the crowds that packed the dinner theater to hear stage icons from Ethel Merman to Patti Lupone get bopped around.

“Forbidden Broadway,” written by composer/lyricist Gerard Alessandrini, never made it to one of the big theaters on the stretch of New York it lampoons, but it has been produced in several cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. On Friday, it makes its county premiere at Saddleback College’s Cabaret Theatre in Mission Viejo, where it is scheduled for a six-week run.

The original show, featuring more than 20 acidic parodies of some of Broadway’s greatest hits and biggest stars, was described by Gerald Clarke of Time magazine as “high-proof, often lethal fun.” Jack Kroll of Newsweek said it “knows all about the hype and absurdity that makes show business like no business.”

Beth Hansen, who is directing the Saddleback production, agreed that “Forbidden Broadway” can get down and dirty in its humor, but she also described it as a valentine for musicals, albeit a bloody one.

“The production walks a fine line between being nasty or kind to all these people (because) the lyrics are pretty biting, but I would say there’s a real loving side to it all too,” she said.

“Fans of musicals, and those who know a lot about them, will see a lot of inside jokes. Those who don’t know much about them will still enjoy all the satire. Most of it is very broad, pie-in-the-face kind of stuff, but some of it is more subtle.”

In one number, an actress portraying Patti Lupone does a send-up of “Evita’s” anthem, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” by taking a shot at Barbra Streisand. The impudence goes like this: Don’t cry for me Barbra Streisand/The truth is I never liked you; / You’ll do the movie , and what a bummer/when you sing “ Evita “ like Donna Summer.

Then there’s Mary Martin turning “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” into a jealous knock of her son, Larry Hagman and his successful tour on “Dallas”: Though I love him like no other/I’m green with envy and awe/’Cause I’m Larry Hagman’s mother/And I wish that he’d majored in law.

From there, the show serves up cat fights between Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera, dueling over their competing performances in “West Side Story,” Linda Ronstadt overdoing a bit from “Pirates of Penzance,” Ethel Merman barreling through an outrageous “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (the new line is “Everything’s coming up Merman, for me and for me!” ) and several ensemble numbers creating havoc with hits from “Cats” to “Fiddler on the Roof.”

In keeping with the original show, just four professional actors--Laura Bogard of Beverly Hills, George Quick of Los Angeles, Gregg Rosentreter of Mission Viejo and Allison Wood of West Los Angeles--are responsible for the many characterizations. The demands, as would be expected, are great.

Hansen said several weeks of preparation were needed to hone portrayals “so they would be familiar to a general audience.”

Hansen herself spent several months poring over vintage tapes of the many stars and repeatedly listening to their records. She required her cast to do the same during the five weeks of rehearsals.

Even with the intensive preparation, Hansen acknowledged that the portrayals are more approximations than anything else: “We know you can’t be exact, (and) we weren’t trying to do that. We want the essence of someone, you know, a focus on their idiosyncrasies. Like with Ethel Merman, we immediately hit on her square look and loud voice.”

Costuming and ancillary props were also important in tapping into a character.

To further reflect those first performances at Palsson’s, the Cabaret Theatre has been transformed into a “classy New York nightclub,” complete with cocktail tables and booths lining the walls. Actors in waiter garb will stroll about and provide non-alcoholic “very chi-chi looking” drinks and desserts.

“We wanted to create just the right New York kind of atmosphere, but once things get going, (the audience) will see that there is something here that is not quite right,” Hansen said. “What I wanted is to have a big joke wrapped in a beautiful silver package.”

“Forbidden Broadway,” Gerard Alessandrini’s musical satire, will play Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:30 p.m. at Saddleback College’s Cabaret Theatre. Through Aug. 14. The college is at 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Tickets: $7 to $9. Information: (714) 582-4656.