Forbidden Broadway Cancels Summertime Broadway Run

Citing a crowded theatrical landscape, the Broadway production of Gerard Alessandrini’s Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song has canceled its upcoming run at the Helen Hayes Theatre, which was scheduled for July 15-November 1.

In a statement, producers Ryan Bogner, Victoria Lang and Tracey McFarland said, “The Broadway landscape is enormously crowded at this moment, and while we adore Forbidden Broadway, we are disappointed that the show will not open at the Hayes on Broadway this summer. New programming for the Hayes Theater this summer will be announced soon.”

Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song was expected to celebrate (and eviscerate) the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, as well as current Broadway titles like  The Great Gatsby, The Notebook, Water for Elephants, Hell’s Kitchen, and Back to the Future. It had premiered in the fall of 2023 at the Green Fig Cabaret Theatre.

Debuting in 1982 in New York’s 130-seat Palsson’s Supper Club, Forbidden Broadway has gone on to play in over 200 cities around the world. The show has spawned multiple iterations with Alessandrini continually updating the material to reflect Broadway’s current slate.

Forbidden Broadway is the latest show to “postpone” a planned Broadway run; earlier this year, Rob Madge’s My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?) cancelled its planned engagement for this spring at the Lyceum.