LAS VEGAS - November 17, 2009 - The UNLV Performing Arts Center celebrates the holiday season with A Forbidden Broadway Christmas, conducted by Catherine Stornetta and with the UNLV Jazz Symphony, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5 as part of the New York Stage & Beyond Series, From the mischievous merry-makers who brought you Forbidden Broadway, this holiday musical extravaganza will fill your holiday with hilarity. Selections include "Barbra Jingle Bells" and "Fiddler on an Xmas Tree."
Forbidden Broadway was first seen at Palsson's Supper Club on New York's Upper West Side in January 1982. An unemployed actor, Gerard Alessandrini, wanted a showcase for his talents. He decided to assemble some of the musical parodies of Broadway shows he had written since childhood into a nightclub act. Critics and audiences were wowed and it has since become New York's longest running musical comedy revue. Forbidden Broadway has won Drama Desk, Obie and Outer Critics Circle awards. In 2006 the Forbidden Broadway and Alessandrini were awarded a Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater.
Updated regularly, Forbidden Broadway has had several editions, countless revisions, three New York City performance spaces, several national and international tours, and thousands of special performances. The show also became known for talented but as yet unknown actors, many of whom have gone on to stardom on Broadway, on television and in the movies. Looking back at Forbidden Broadway provides an informal and very funny history of the American musical theatre.
Tickets to A Forbidden Broadway Christmas are $40, $55, and $85 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center Box Office at 895-ARTS (2787). Student rush tickets are $13 each and available one hour prior to each event, based on availability and with valid student I.D. UNLV faculty and staff discounts also are available. A $1.25 facilities fee, in addition to the ticket price, is charged on all Performing Arts Center tickets. The box office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Information about all of the season's performances can be found on the Performing Arts Center website, located at pac.unlv.edu.
Founded in 1976, the Performing Arts Center at UNLV continues to be Southern Nevada's premier performing arts venue. Located on the north end of the UNLV campus, the PAC hosts a variety of performances each year in three distinct series - the Charles Vanda Master Series, the New York Stage & Beyond Series, and the UNLV Classical guitar Series. UNLV and KLVX Channel 10 are graciously sponsoring the season.
