These Swipes at Musicals Are Really Love Taps

Can you feel the claws tonight? Incoming monsters such as “The Lion King,” ninth-life stragglers such as “Cats” and somber whatzits like “Martin Guerre” all get shredded but good--in the nicest way--by the latest incarnation of “Forbidden Broadway,” now happily tearing up the curtains at the Tiffany Theater.

Musical comedy circa 2000 is the straight man. Writer-director Gerard Alessandrini and his evil henchfolk write the punch lines, the songs that make the whole world sting.

The show’s full title is “Forbidden Broadway Y2K L.A.!” And it is hoo-larious, a wonderful edition, as well as a wonderful addition to Our City of the Cell Phones and its current entertainment options.

How does the show fare with its potentially tired satiric targets? Let’s start with L.A.’s cellular fixation. In the locally tailored introduction, as Gerry McIntyre sings the opening number, an audience member (Christine Pedi) carries on a noisy telephonic assessment of his performance thus far. (She pans it.) The bit comes off beautifully.

“Forbidden Broadway Y2K L.A.!” brings back old “Forbidden” favorites, in well-worn spoofs as well as new material. Jason Graae, as the heavily reverbed “Phantom of the Opera” originator Michael Crawford, learns a lesson in lung power from Pedi’s Ethel Merman (no fan of the head mike). Also heavily reverbed, a la the “Back to Broadway” album, Susanne Blakeslee’s Barbra Streisand remains devastatingly accurate.

Alessandrini and various casts have long had their way with “Cats” and “A Chorus Line.” These two long-runners have been fused anew, however, in a “Cats” audition scene scored to the opening of “A Chorus Line” (“Scratch, lick, lick, purr, kick, scratch--again!”).

Brand-new musical theater satire is yours, all yours, courtesy of Alessandrini’s spoof of the eternally revised “Martin Guerre,” touted here as “the return of the return of the return of ‘Martin Guerre.’ ”

“I emote,” wails a fabulously bewigged Graae, “like Nelson Eddy on crack / Hold your nose / Operetta is back!” And this: “Look! / It’s Martin Guerre / And I confess / This show’s a mess / Just like my hair!”

Such lyrics often sound meaner on the page than they play on stage. By now, having messed with Broadway since the Reagan years, Alessandrini and his cohorts have learned plenty about the virtues of speed and subtlety in performance. And cheap shots too, of course. But quick ones.

Pedi and Blakeslee rate as two of the funniest performers ever to do this material, with Graae and McIntyre not far behind. When she does Liza Minnelli in concert, Pedi astonishes, and not simply because she does a good Liza impression; chattering away, equal parts neediness and audience-stroking, Pedi channels an entire realm of show business. (She does a killer Bernadette Peters too, though the “Annie Get Your Gun” spoof is disappointing.)

The “Ragtime” segment, called “Gagtime,” is more lengthy than it deserves; a few other spots wobble. These are minor blips in a very funny evening. Exuberantly, cattily performed, backed by ace accompanist John Randall, “F.B. Y2K L.A.!” is A-OK.

*

* “Forbidden Broadway Y2K L.A.!,” Tiffany Theater, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends May 28. $37.50-$39.50. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 2 hours.

Susanne Blakeslee, Jason Graae, Gerry McIntyre, Christine Pedi: Ensemble

John Randall: Pianist

Written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini. Choreographer Phillip George. Set by Bradley Kaye. Costumes by Alvin Colt. Stage manager Jeffrey Hanen.