"Forbidden Broadway" Returns in August Hamminess, sloppiness, fatuity, inanity and, if we're lucky, all-out insanity: such are the attributes that make a bad Broadway show so satisfying for people with a taste for turkey. In recent years mainstream New York theater certainly hasn't been lacking in productions that embody those essential traits. And disaster cultists who train their sights on Broadway thank the New York theater for continuing to deliver such abundance. But can't we admit now that feasting on flops and even sending up successes haven't had quite the same tang they once did - not, to put an exact date to it, since the spring of 2009? That was when "Forbidden Broadway," the satirical revue that had kept theater vultures sated for nigh on three decades, closed down in Manhattan, depriving New Yorkers of caricatures that had come to seem as essential as Al Hirschfeld's drawings. Gerard Alessandrini, the show's seemingly inexhaustible creator, said at the time that Broadway was becoming too bland even to make fun of. Well, never let it be said that Broadway won't rise to a challenge. In the last year or so the fabulous invalid has demonstrated a renewed capacity for vulgarity, folly and grand delusions. And "Forbidden Broadway" will be back in business to acknowledge this return to form. Previews begin on July 24 at the 47th Street Theater, with a limited run opening on Sept. Perhaps it was the thud of a falling web slinger in "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" that lured Mr. Alessandrini and company back to town. Or the phht of dematerializing digitally generated ectoplasm in "Ghost the Musical." I can't wait to see what the "Forbidden" team does with the high-sugar, high-caffeine concoction called "Newsies." Or the opera-lite reworking of "The Gershwins" Porgy and Bess." And most important to Mr. Alessandrini's purposes, there is at the moment a surfeit of performers with personas that, love "em or hate "em, are bigger than life, which means perfect for target practice. The slumping Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Death of a Salesman," the lockjawed Stockard Channing in "Other Desert Cities," the hyperkinetic Tracie Bennett as Judy Garland in "End of the Rainbow," the milquetoast Matthew Broderick in "Nice Work if You Can Get It": Just imagine these outsize presences lining up to receive their shots. Roll up your sleeve and be brave, guys. It only hurts a little. And being pricked by Mr. Alessandrini means Broadway is healthier than it's been in a while.