Interview: Jenny Lee Stern of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY at Broadway At The Hobby Center

Jenny Lee Stern is a Broadway actress who is coming to Houston with FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: Merrily We Stole a Song at the Houston Hobby Center, playing from April 24th through the 26th. Jenny has been in some serious musicals, but this show is a send-up, or rather a spoof of the Great White Way, like you've never seen. You're going to get to see CABARET. You'll see GYSPSY. You'll see THE OUTSIDERS, & Juliet, probably SIX, plus favorites and classics such as PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and LES MISÉRABLES. All done in such a twisted and funny way! They bill it as 31 Broadway shows in ninety minutes, so you can’t miss it! Broadway World writer Brett Cullum got to sit down with Jenny Lee Stern and geek out over all the Sondheim and Patti LuPone references these two could muster. 

Brett Cullum: Jenny, how awesome to have you and Forbidden Broadway coming to Houston. I don’t recall this show ever hitting Houston before, so this is like some kind of premiere or special occasion. 

Jenny Lee Stern: Thank you. I'm so excited. I've never been to Houston, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Brett Cullum: Houston is all about the Tex-Mex food and the humidity. That's it. That is all you are in for! 

Jenny Lee Stern: That's what I heard. I did another interview last week, and I was like, “What do I need to do?” And she was literally like, “Margaritas, Tex-mex, and dress comfortably!” 

Brett Cullum: I gather that FORBIDDEN BROADWAY has been an institution since 1982. Gerard Alessandrini has been doing it the whole time. How did you end up in this production? 

Jenny Lee Stern: So I have been a member of the family, as they say, for almost fourteen or fifteen years! Give or take. I did my first production about fifteen years ago, and it was called FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: Alive and Kicking, and this was after FORBIDDEN BROADWAY had been continuously running for thirty years at that point. They had taken a five-year hiatus, which for them was major. And so this production, Alive and Kicking, was the first one back, like “We're not dead!” And it was an all-new cast of four actors who had never done the show before, and all new material. And so it was a huge success with all the bells and whistles! That went really well, and it clicked with Gerard, John, and Harriet, the producers, and a couple of years later, they called me back. I did Spamilton, and they've called me back every couple of years! I did The Next Generation and Forbidden Sondheim, which we did last summer, and now Merrily We Stole a Song. Stephen Sondheim was such a huge lover of Forbidden Broadway and had a personal connection with Gerard. He would always come to the shows, and we've gotten to meet him several times. He loves art. He loves theater, and parody is that. And you know, spoofing Sondheim is not easy, right? Doing a proper parody of a Sondheim song is pretty intense, and Gerard's just a genius.

Brett Cullum: Do you have a favorite number that you've done, and it doesn't have to be in this iteration? Do you remember something that sticks out to you? 

Jenny Lee Stern: Gerard's written so many amazing numbers for me. I did like an “End of the Rainbow” number when Tracie Bennett was playing Judy Garland on Broadway about fourteen years ago; I did another Judy number when Renee Zellweger played Garland. We did like a Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone spoof. Remember when they came back and did their duo show, but sang all these songs like “I am sixteen going on seventeen?” Those are great! 

But I'm gonna say, of all of the incarnations, some of the standouts for me are actually the group numbers that were the most collaborative. Back in Alive and Kicking, we did this one number that had many different parts, it was almost a medley. Remember the musical ONCE? That was really fun to put together, because it was a collaborative and sort of came from improv! And then I gotta say we do an Outsiders number in this version. It is the most fun I've had on stage! Also, we do a different CATS number in this version. It's like the new CATS, the ballroom CATS. 

I love taking center stage, being in the spotlight, and doing Judy, Patti, Barbara, or Angela Lansbury, but I mean to work off of the other actors that I become so close with is so fun. And I really get a kick out of being on stage with some of these people. So I think in this one, you'll see on my face that I love OUTSIDERS. I think it's hilarious.

Brett Cullum: Do you ever feel bad making fun of some of these folks? Because I mean, let's face it, Broadway actors. They take themselves a little bit seriously. I am terrified of interviewing Patti LuPone!

Jenny Lee Stern: A little bit too seriously. I'll tell you a quick Patti LuPone story. There is a line that I say in the show before my Patti number, which is actually verbatim what she said to me when I met her. I was doing a show at 54 Below, which is the basement of Studio 54. It's the Premier Broadway cabaret space, right? So people like Patti Lupone, Lillias White, and Marilyn Maye, and all these amazing people do shows there. So I was doing the 9:30 pm show, and Patti was doing the 7 o'clock show. I always do these, so I don't pay too much attention to who's on the bill before me. But I was in my dressing room getting ready, and I was like “THAT IS PATTI LUPONE!” I did a double-take because I thought she was my mom for a second, and I was wondering what my mom was doing there, because they really do look a lot alike. I went up to her, and I was like, “Oh, my gosh, I just want to introduce myself. My name is Jenny Lee Stern, and I play you in Forbidden Broadway. I have played you in Forbidden Broadway for like 15 years!” She goes, “Forbidden Broadway????!? They're STILL doing Forbidden Broadway???”

And I was like, “What is this line reading? Is this line reading like, ‘Wow, I'm still relevant enough to be in Forbidden Broadway,’ or is it like, ‘Oh, my God, give it a rest?’ Or is it like Wow! Great for them?” But it didn't matter. That was just the line, and that's all she said to me. She’s like, “Good for you, good for you to be doing Forbidden Broadway!”

Brett Cullum: Jenny Lee Stern! You are now an icon. Patti LuPone snubbed you backstage! YOU HAVE ARRIVED! I always remember that one song Forbidden Broadway did in an early version of their show, and they were making fun of Patti LuPone in Anything Goes, and they made the lyric, “I get no kick from champagne! Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all. So tell me, why should it be? That I get a kick out of ME?” 

Jenny Lee Stern: Yeah, sure! But I mean to answer your original question, “Do you feel bad?” I will say it is as sharp as ever, clever as ever. But I mean, we have to evolve with the times. Right? So there it is. You have a parody license. But everywhere in the world, we're sensitive to trigger warnings for people and things like that. You have to be, or we would be ostracized. Right? So I think it's toned down in terms of the meanness factor as opposed to the past. We're not commenting on people's weight. We're not commenting on people's age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. If you go back into the vaults, it's surprising how not so long ago, what things were universally okay to say. We've evolved with the times on that one. So I would say it's less mean. It’s more clever, witty. It's more of a comment on the shows themselves rather than that I'm too old to play this part or too fat to fit in the costume. And I love that because it challenges Gerard, and it challenges us to raise the bar. You don't have to hit below the belt to still be funny, clever, and still find a rhyme! I can't say that I don’t feel bad every once in a while when I run into somebody that I've spoofed. I ran into Megan Hilty the other day, and she had come and seen the show, and I think maybe she had forgotten that I had done a SMASH parody of the TV show 12 years ago. If I went back and listened to that with her in the same room, I'd probably be getting the cold sweats. We did a Moulin Rouge parody, and I ran into Robyn Herder. You do think for a second, “What did I say? What did I do? Was that okay?”  But I think everybody who is spoofed or being parodied, like how cool? Hello! That means you're iconic. That means you've made it to a point in your career where Forbidden Broadway can spoof you like that? You're spoofable. Oh, my gosh! I would take that any day. It would just be an honor to be parodied. You know what I mean.

Brett Cullum: Well, you are not an actress who only does parody! You’ve been in some serious shows too, right?  

Jenny Lee Stern: No, no, no, I'm not a slave to the parody. I mean, I do play Patsy Cline in Always Patsy Cline all over the country, which still is an impression, but not slapstick.

Brett Cullum: That was developed right here in Houston. You can come here and stand on the stage where it was first performed, and visit the location where Patsy Cline performed and met that fan from the show. 

Jenny Lee Stern: Oh, that's wonderful! And then I played Sally Bowles in a very dark Cabaret.

Brett Cullum: Wait a sec… can you do, Cabaret, and it not be dark. Is there a “happy, light” version I have been missing all these years? 

Jenny Lee Stern: I'm sure some do it! I just saw it at like a high school, some do it in a community center, and I was appalled but… 

Brett Cullum: I am BEYOND appalled. We need to call Patti LuPone and send her to ANY production like that - high school or community center! Step away from CABARET!

Jenny Lee Stern: I was like, “What am I? Why do I feel like this? Is this a test? Am I supposed to be like walking out? This is so inappropriate!” When I played Sally Bowles, she was unhinged and NOT in high school! I've done pretty much everything in my career. I started when I was eleven years old, playing Annie at the Bucks County Playhouse, and you know it's just been going from there. Everything from anybody in West Side Story to Roxy Hart to, you know, Patsy Cline to Sally Bowles and Mrs. Lovett to Mamma Mia, too. I've even done Seussical, you know! So, I've done it all. I love it all. I just love being on stage. I love embodying a new character, which is another skill I was blessed to have fall into my lap. It's just become really like a part of who I am. It's really been, I mean, I still don't consider myself a singer, and I still don't consider myself an impressionist! I consider myself an actor who is called upon and who does whatever I need to do to serve the show! You know what I mean? And people are like, “You're insane!” I'm like, “Well, that's just how I feel!" I don't feel like some insane singer, where it’s my number one craft [to do impressions and impersonate]. I play Patsy Cline, and she's a singer, so I will sing like Patsy Cline, right? Or like some of the stuff you'll see me do in this version of the show is extremely athletic and dancey. And all these things, and like, “How long have you been dancing?” And I am like, “I have been dancing since I was a kid, but I also don't consider myself a dancer! I would never dance in the ensemble of a big Broadway show. Obviously, that's a lie, because I have. So I don't know what I'm talking about, but I don't like to identify like that. I'm like, oh, well, I'm an actor, and this role dances. I guess I don't know.

Brett Cullum: Okay, Jenny Lee Stern… breathe! WOW! You talk a million miles a minute, I mean. I know Forbidden Broadway moves at a breakneck speed, where you are doing 31 musicals in less than 91 minutes! 

Jenny Lee: Oh, my gosh! Well, that's the hardest part. I mean the backstage part with the changes, wigs, and costumes, and then you're like, “Oh, wait! Maybe I need to lower my palette [makeup],” like you don't have the chance to prepare! And what happens with Forbidden Broadway! We just had rehearsal this week, because it's a little bit of a new version of the show, we have a new person, and we're working things out. And so the order of the show is very important for flow, but also because if Jenny's doing Annie and Jenny's doing Sweeney Todd, then we need something in the middle of it, because she needs to change, or whatever. And we were sort of putting the show together the other day, and I had to go from Angela Lansbury to Little Red Riding Hood! I mean, we’re talking Angela Lansbury into Lindsay Mendez, and I started trying to sing Lindsay Mendez, and the sound was not coming out because I had just been Angela Lansbury! Then you're trying to legit mix belting American musical theater. So yeah, it's a wild super niche skill! That's kind of why only about twenty core people in all of New York City have done it consistently.

Brett Cullum: Well, we cannot wait to see you in Forbidden Broadway. I am so stoked that this is coming to Houston. It is gonna be at the Hobby Center, April 24th through the 26th!

Jenny Lee: Will we see you at the show? 

Brett Cullum: Oh, my! Gosh! Yes, of course. Yeah, and I'm gonna bring Patti LuPone, and she's gonna be my plus one! She'll be like, “Their still doing this damn thing? And that girl who thinks I am her mother is still in it???”

Jenny Lee: Thank you so much. That’s a really terrifying thought! I hope she never sees this article.  

Brett Cullum: Me, too. I'm scared!