BroadwayReviewed.com

I was looking for something to review today and I found this video parody of the Book of Mormon’s song Hello by a seriously talented kid who plays the characters from Harry Potter. The Book of Mormon Harry Potter Parody is extremely well done. The lyrics match up to the song from the show almost perfectly but make complete sense for Harry Potter instead. What I love even more is that it looks like it is the same girl playing all eight characters and doing them extremely well.

The Book of Mormon Harry Potter Parody video Hello is sort of only funny if you have either seen The Book of Mormon on Broadway, have heard the soundtrack or original cast recording if you’re a theatre buff and you are a fan of or have seen the Harry Potter books and movies. It has most of the major characters in it and each of them are holding a different book from the series. One of my favorite lines in the parody video of Hello from The Book of Mormon is when Harry Potter sings “This book is about my life” instead of the lyric “This book will change your life”. The entire parody is done well and each character stays in character and their lyrics match up to how they were in the Harry Potter books.

I absolutely love this parody and think that the girl in the video who does the Book of Mormon Harry Potter video has a huge career ahead of her. Not only did she do an amazing job playing all of the characters, but if she wrote the lyrics too, she is the next Miranda Sings or even Seth Rudetsky. If you haven’t heard the song Hello from The Book of Mormon, I put the video of it below the parody video so you can hear what the real version sounds like.

I was on Youtube today looking up a video with a friend when we found this video from the TV show Sesame Street which is all about the Letter G and Glee. Not only do they spoof the tv show Glee well, but the characters, the songs and everything else take the letter songs to a brand new level from when we were kids.

The Sesame Street parody of Glee features almost everyone one of the main characters from the first season of Glee. The only difference is that they show them after they have all either come out of the closet, become a diva or started to take shape as the characters we know today. The parody is a bit progressive from the Sesame Street that I remember because they not only have Kurt as a Gay character yelling more glitter, but they have Mercedes going crazy about wanting to be a Diva and they have Sue making hair jokes at “Mr. Goo” instead of M”Mr. Shue”.

The Sesame Street parody of Glee is absolutely hilarious and it is amazing to see how much the show has grown. This video is more like a Saturday Night Live skit than an episode or song that I remember from when I was a kid watching the show. If they now have funny skits like this and features real life types of people, the show can do a great job for teaching kids about tolerance and discrimination.

My friend and I couldn’t stop laughing while watching the Sesame Street parody of Glee so I wanted to share it with all of you as well in case you hadn’t seen it either. Please feel free to share this post using the Twitter or Facebook icons above and feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you all again for reading and here is the Sesame Street vs. Glee video.

It is very rare that I ever shut up. The thing is that I love to talk and yell and sing and say whatever is on my mind. The problem with this video is that I really don’t know how to react. Someone actually took the time to take the My Little Ponies and have them lip sync and act out a few showtunes. But it isn’t just your normal video, the people who produced it actually went and got an entire stage, elaborate my little pony costumes and even built an entire set. I am assuming that they actually had a musical or my little ponies play and then a couple of the characters decided to do a spoof video of Dreamgirls and Wicked.

Anyways, the acting in it, for a my little pony singing and performing showtunes isn’t horrible. I love when the one pony lifts up her leg to kick over the milkshakes so that she can make a point in the first dreamgirls song. Then I love when that one turns into Elphaba and they bring in the next my little pony which is Galinda. I sort of wish they used a green my little pony instead of a blue one for elphaba, but hey, we can’t be that picky.

Anyways, I love the 1980′s and I love broadway and I love showtunes, so when you combine all three together in a really random way you either get something amazing or something that is a complete flop. I am still undecided on how I feel about this video. If it was at a showtunes night I would love it. If it is sitting here in my own home, I would think it is pretty lame. After I watched it I ended up thinking it was kind of cool, but still sort of stupid. Then i got to thinking about how hard it must be to be one of the dreamgirls and then a witch in a horse costume and sort of love it so that is why I am posting it here at BroadwayReviewed.com. Let me know what you think of the My Little Ponies perform Broadway hits.

If you love the Pirates of Penzance, you’ll love this parody of the song I am the very model of a modern major general, I am the very model of a modern homosexual. Not only do I love parodies and when producers cross shows for promotions like when Avenue Q and Fiddler combined to create Avenue Jew or when Spring Awakening combined with Grease to create a ridiculous cast, in this parody a bunch of gay guys combined, probably on a poop deck to redo one of the most famous showtunes and create I am the very model of a modern homosexual.

The original song has been heard in cartoons, on tv, on the radio and just about everyone knows the tune. They turned the show into a movie and back into a show and everyone tries to sing along with it but eventually ends up giving up. The fun thing about the parody I am the very model of a modern homosexual is that you don’t want to give up, you want to actually learn the lyrics since it is freaking hilarious.

Ok I am holding back from a million but pirate jokes with this song and the show the Pirates of Penzance, with the exception of the poop deck comment above, so I’ll leave it up to you to make as many of the gay pirate jokes as you’d like, just keep them to yourself so we don’t offend any of the readers….or leave it in the comments and if its in taste then I’ll approve it. =0). Anyways, I am the very model of a modern homosexual is a fun parody that I am probably going to end up trying to download to my iPhone so that I can add it to my work playlist. Not only is it a fun one to sing a long to, but it is also great for typing. I absolutely love this song and think that you will to. I wish they would have crossed the show La Cage with it for a promo. That would have been perfect. Anyways, here’s I am the very model of a modern homosexual. Let me know what you think.

Like I said, I couldn’t do a post about Forbidden Broadway doing Kristin Chenoweth without being able to do one about one of their favorite target, the amazing Patti Lupone. Not only do they make sure they do at least one Patti song for each season, but when Patti was doing Gypsy, they completely went overboard with multiple Patti does Gypsy versions and songs. Unfortunately i wasn’t able to find a clip on youtube for my favorite one of the Forbidden Broadway Patti Lupone Gypsy songs, “Small Part, Isn’t it”, but I did find the next best thing, “Everything’s coming up Patti”. Now before you get upset, Forbidden Broadway is like the Fryer’s Club where they roast famous comedians. The only difference is that instead of comedians and screen Actors, Forbidden Broadway does famous Broadway Stars.

The reality is that you can be the biggest star on broadway and brand new, but you haven’t made it to pure stardom until Forbidden Broadway has done a parody of you. What I love even more about the Forbidden Broadway casts are that they aren’t only talented Actors and Singers, but they are also able to impersonate famous stars and sing pretty much just like them. The girl that did the Kristin Chenoweth one does an amazing impression and hits the notes in Glitter and Be Gay perfectly. The people that have done Patti have done a pretty good job with her voice, but none have ever really hit it spot on. Then again, it is pretty hard to be able to do a perfect Patti since her voice changes for each role.

Anyways, Patti has a reputation for being a diva, being a bit over the top and for just being an absolutely Broadway Star. That is what makes her such a prime target and easy target for groups like Forbidden Broadway. Then again, Patti also has a ton of talent and is extremely fun to get to watch perform. Sort of like Madonna (No Evita references I swear), she needs everything to be perfect or she will probably not continue. It seems like she is a perfectionist which is probably one of the reasons why she has become such a huge star, and one that Forbidden Broadway loves to include in their performances. Anyways, here is Forbidden Broadways Everything’s Coming Up Patti from Gypsy.

For all of the Chenofans out there who love Kristin Chenoweth, myself included, you have to hear the Forbidden Broadway version of Glitter and Be Gay which they did in response to Kristin Chenoweth performing Glitter and Be Gay from Candide. If you’re not familiar with Forbidden Broadway, they are an off broadway show that changes each year and makes fun of all of the main stream and off broadway shows as well as all of the major broadway stars.

Probably the most famous parodies they do are of Patti Lupone, not only because she’s an easy target, but also because they are just seriously funny. I’ll be doing a post with her Gypsy Forbidden Broadway song later this week. The reality is that until Forbidden Broadway makes fun of you, you haven’t made it on Broadway. It’s sort of like traditional media’s roasts where they only roast the top celebrities. Forbidden Broadway only makes fun of the best of the best on Broadway. That is why I love the Forbidden Broadway parody of Kristin Chenoweth singing Glitter and Be Gay. Not only does it rip into Kristin in a funny way, but it takes you through pretty much all of her career.

The Forbidden broadway Kristin Chenoweth Glitter and Be Gay is amazing. I love that it starts with how she abandoned broadway, even though she didn’t, and then goes from the beginnings of her career on broadway into Pushing up Daisies and then back to Wicked. Then all of the sudden she’s to popular for broadway and Idina so she goes back to pop culture since that is always popular. The only thing that the song is missing is her performance on west wing and Promises Promises, but then again I think that this song came out before Kristin did Promises Promises.

Anyways, if you love parodies and you love broadway, you have to check out Forbidden Broadway. It is not only hilarious if you love theatre, but you’ll love the parodies that they do of famous broadway stars like Kristin Chenoweth and Patti Lupone. Forbidden Broadway is also where I discovered Christine Pedi who I absolutely love and adore. She is incredibly talented and does an amazing Liza Minelli impersonation. Anyways, here is the Forbidden Broadway version of Kristin Chenoweth singing Glitter and Be Gay.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting one of the performers from one of Washington DC‘s most popular performance groups, The Capitol Steps. Jon Bell took a minute to sit down and do an interview with us at BroadwayReviewed.com and we are very excited to share with you a bit more about one of DC’s most well known performance groups The Captiol Steps.

What are the Capitol Steps?

“Capitol Steps” is a musical, political satire. It consists of a number of actors that make fun of the things that are going on in politics today. Each show usually consists of 3 men and 2 women that put the mock in democracy. It is a fun, fast-paced show geared to make you laugh.

How did the Capital Steps Form? (This answer came from one of the founders)

The Capitol Steps have an odd history – we started in 1981 as entertainment for a Senate office Christmas party. We were all working on Capitol Hill at the time…and the joke we like to make is that we originally intended to put on a traditional nativity play, but in all the Congress we couldn’t find three wise men or a virgin! So, instead we decided to make fun of the very people that employed us. It was the early days of Ronald Reagan…he had gone from acting to politics, so we thought we could go from politics to acting. And we thought that after that first party, someone would tell us to stop (or maybe even fire us!) but no one did, so 28 years later, the group is still going. For the first fifteen years, we had a rule that anyone who performed with the Capitol Steps had to be a Capitol Hill staffer. Eventually, during the Clinton years, we got so busy that we added some Washington-area actors, and now the group is about fifty-fifty, staffers and performers.

When we started, it was the Reagan administration and the songs were about the scandals back then, “Thank God I’m a Contra Boy” or “Mine Every Mountain.” Over the years, the members of the Capitol Steps have learned to listen to the news not as a serious source of information, but more, “is it funny and what rhymes with it?” So when Dan Quayle was Vice President, we did “Stand By Your Dan,” the first Gulf War gave us “Papa’s Got a Brand New Baghdad,” and the North Korea nuclear threat prompted the song “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea?”

Over the years, our favorite scandals have been those that suggest a certain song. For example, when Governor Mark Sanford said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but was actually in Argentina, it gave us a good chance to use “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” and when the Tiger Woods scandal broke, we did “Fly of the Tiger.” Sometimes it’s like the politicians are thinking of us. And though some people think Barack Obama isn’t always quite as funny as George Bush, he gave us Joe Biden. So we’re grateful for that!

How did you get involved with the Capitol Steps?

I was living in Williamsburg, Virginia at the time when I got an email from a friend of mine who had already been performing with “Capitol Steps” for about 15 years. His email asked, ” Are you still black ? Are you still performing ? ” He told me that “Capitol Steps” was currently looking for someone to play Barack Obama and that I should get in touch with Elaina Newport for an audition. I spoke with Elaina and sent her my headshot and resume. I also took a look on you-tube to see what “Capitol Steps” was all about and I realized that they often used well known songs and changed the words to make fun of what was going on in politics. Elaina told me that she wanted to hear me sing and that she would like a comic monologue. So, after checking them out on you-tube I got the idea to sing Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” but change the words to talk about gas prices. I had the audition on a Saturday in November at 3 p.m., after the audition Elaina asked me to stay and watch the show that evening. She told me that I was hired during the intermission of the show that I saw that night. I was overjoyed !

What is the biggest challenge with all of the different routines you have to memorize?

The amount of time that we have to learn some of the songs is really fast, so I always have to be ready to learn something new whenever they have an idea for a new skit. Last year, I was flying to California to do a show and just as we landed in the airport, we got word that Michael Jackson had just died. Well, Micheal Jackson was in our show that we were about to perform in a couple of hours. So Elaina had to change the script in a matter of hours and decided to take Michael Jackson out of the show and replace him with Cher. Well, to make a long story short I began to learn the new lyrics for Cher and that evening I put on a skirt and a long,black wig and Cher became a part of the show.

What do you feel the biggest impact you have had with the Capital Steps is? Education, Entertainment, Awareness, etc…? I think it is the joy that I feel daily to go out and perform this show. It is so rewarding to bring joy to so many people for a living. My world has also expanded since I have gotten to travel throughout the country. I have met so many different cultures and made some great friends.

What do you love most about being a part of The Capitol Steps?

I think “Capitol Steps” is an awesome company to work for ! I get to travel the country and I have worked in some theatre’s that have seated over 2,000 people. I am trully blessed ! There are days that I take a breath and think “This is really happening to me!”. I also think that the people that I work for are so talented and fun. It’s always great when you love the people that you work with. I also LOVE the challenge of having to learn something new at a moments notice, this is an actors dream !! Another fun fact about the “Capitol Steps” is that we are always working with different performers. There are about 24 cast members throughout “Capitol Steps” and they are always mixing us up with different cast members, so we have A LOT of scripts in our head. We will often play different roles depending on who we are paired with. There could be 4 shows going on in different parts of the country on the same night.

Where can we see you all perform?

You can always find our schedule on our website : capitolsteps.com ~ You will be able to find out the next time we are performing in a city near you. You can also book us to do a show. We do private and public shows throughout the country and we always have shows every Friday and Saturday at 7:30p.m. at the Reagan building at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C.

What would you say the most important thing someone can get from one of your shows is?

The news really can be funny, it’s all in how you look at it.

What do you like most about being a part of The Capitol Steps?

I love the travel, the people that I work with and the constantly changing script……. it is a wonderful challenge that I embrace daily.

What else would you like us to know about you or The Captiol Steps?

I have been performing professionally for 20 years and I love where my career has taken me. I thank God for opening these doors and allowing me to experience this incredible joy.

I’d like to thank Jon Bell for taking the time to talk with Broadway Reviewed and if you would like to see The Captial Steps perform contact them through their website by clicking here.

If you can’t tell by my previous posts that I think that no one can do a Parody like a Broadway Star or a Drag Queen then you haven’t been reading this blog close enough.  I was watching showtunes at EFN Lounge in Washington DC and they played a new parody of the Lady Gaga song Alejandro except instead of being a drag queen or a star or a regular person playing Lady Gaga it was none other than the talented and fabulous Ms. Jackie Hoffman from the cast of The Addams Family on broadway with Nathan Lane.

Not only does Jackie Hoffman make probably one of the very best Granny’s that we will ever see but she is able to take the Granny character and turn it into a great spoof on a hit Lady Gaga song called Alejandro.  I absolutely loved this video and although it is disturbing to watch Jackie Hoffman play this character because of the Granny Panties no one else could pull off such a fabulous parody and make it work the way that she can.  The parody is absolutely fabulous and amazing and I love it.  It is almost enough to get me to go see The Addams Family on Broadway when I go to New York in a few weeks.  Jackie Hoffman did an amazing job with the parody of Lady Gaga’s Alejandro and it is perfectly called Old Lady Gaga.

It is kind of a disturbing video but if you are a Jackie Hoffman or a Lady Gaga fan you’ll love the video.  Thank you EFN Lounge as well for playing it at showtunes or I might have never found this fabulous parody of Lady Gaga’s Alejandro.  Jackie did an amazing job with the parody and let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment below or by clicking on the green tweet or retweet button at the top of this post to share it with all of your friends on Twitter.

Here is Jackie Hoffman’s Old Lady Gaga.

So there is nothing more I like in a show than a song where the Actors can really show off their voices and the other thing that makes a show work for me is dancing and good dancing.  Nothing does that better than a classic tap dancing routine and no show has a combination that is better known than Anything Goes from the show Anything Goes and there is probably no better known Diva performer to do this show and make it famous than the talented Patty Lupone.

Not only did Patty Lupone take this somewhat flat show and turn it into an amazing performance, but Patty Lupone gave a performance that can probably never be topped.  The only person that could ever probably give a run for the money on a classic show and song like Anything Goes is the Great and Glamorous Miss. Carol Channing.  She is probably the only person who has existed in my lifetime that has enough stage presence and raw talent to show up the great Mz. Patty Lupone and make the song and dance for Anything Goes better, but to be honest I don’t see Ms. Channing coming back to do an Anything Goes revival any time soon.

The thing is that when you take an amazing song that starts slow, allows for high notes and very loud and in your face notes and then tie in tap dancing and an amazing and memorable routine, then you add in a true Broadway Star like Patty Lupone, you have an almost guaranteed hit, no matter how bad the rest of the show is, people will leave remembering and loving that song and routine.  This is the same thing with Fiddler on the Roof.

We’ll never have another Zero Mostel but thank god we do have a Harvey Fierstein and although the show lacks a solid ending and a great story line or plot, it does have memorable songs and a couple of fun dance routines, even if they aren’t tap but are more jazz and modern ballet.

Anyways, because of the amazing performance which is still played at almost every showtunes night in the US today, no matter who tried to parody or spoof the song, you always have one thing, tap dancing and divas.  I only found one version of a parody or variation of the hit broadway song Anything Goes and the only reason it is amazing is well,,,,I want the laser gun they have.  You’ll see what I mean. Anyways, even when Hollywood tries to imitate broadway and even when it is a blockbuster like Indiana Jones, they still cannot get away from a diva singing and a ton of people tap dancing.

Here is a great example of how people can try to take the stage from a song like Anything Goes and even with a huge Hollywood budget you still cannot escape the one thing that Broadway will always have, amazing talent.  Even though the singer has an amazing voice and is gorgeous, even though she has amazing back up that can dance and they have special effects, nothing compares to how a real Broadway Star like Patty Lupone can work a song and make it their own.  There is a reason she is a star and even if you like the parody below or the Hollywood version of Anything Goes from Indiana Jones, Patty still did the most amazing version and the best version to date of the song Anything Goes.  Although I do have to say that the third video is probably a big competitor to the Patty Lupone version, even though there is no singing and no one is dancing.  =0).

Ok, now I have to be honest, I hate the Beyonce song “All The Single Ladies” when it first came out.  I despised it even more after Michael Meyers and Justin Timberlake parodied it on Saturday Night Live and I hated it even more when that is all they would play and play it 5 times a night in any club in Chicago.  I hated the song and would leave a bar if they started playing it or change the channel on my internet radio station until it was over.  That is until Glee took the song on.

When I saw Kurt perform it and his Dad bust him and then when he got to football team to try it I kind of had a new appreciation for it, but I still didn’t like it.  The song did become more tolerable but still not something  I was going to go crazy for, until I went to Sex in the City 2 and saw the fabulous Mz. Liza Minelli perform the song with two Liza Minelli Drag Queen Impersonators behind her.

When the Drag Queens that impersonate Liza Minelli get behind Liza and Liza Minelli impersonates Beyonce and performs the song that is when you change my mind and I begin to love the song.  Leave it to Liza to turn this song into a classic hit again and take the parodies to an even higher level.  With that said, I still wouldn’t buy or listen to the song on my own or go looking for more parodies but this one came across my facebook feed earlier today.  It is called all the wrinkled ladies.  All the wrinkled ladies is an all the single ladies parody that is not only done tastefully but it is actually funny.

The All the Wrinkled Ladies video starts out like you’d expect but instead of showing gross and disgusting images and trying to go overboard with it to get attention, they tastefully make a parody of the song and do it in a way that makes you laugh instead of making you cringe or get grossed out.  I personally like this video because not only am I having a fat day, but it completely worked for me today and didn’t make me feel bad about overeating all day.

Here’s the video for All The Wrinkled Ladies and if you like it too, use the greet retweet button up top to tweet it to your friends or leave a comment below.