STRIKING BACK AND REACHING OUT.

Julie Andrews and Mayor Giuliani are the--and I use the word advisedly--neat "Julies" who open Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act by singing a number about Hizzoner's attempt to keep Times Square and its environs pristine and porn-free. Ensconced at the Stardust, a minuscule theater on Broadway next door to Cats, this latest edition of the long-running parody manages to merrily skewer stars and reduce certain shows to dust. Gerard Alessandrini, its ever-resourceful creator, is tireless in his apt dissection of what's wrong or merely laughable in theater these days. One of my favorite skits concerns the egregious over-amplification of big, brash musicals. Kristine Zbornik, as Ethel Merman, belts out a variant of "You're Just in Love" with Bryan Bart, a foghorn-amplified-voiced Phantom (of the Opera). As Ethel sings, she plucks concealed mikes from his wig and more intimate places. She, of course, requires no amplification. Four brilliant quick-change artists--Lori Hammel, Edward Staudenmayer, Zbornik, and Batt--work on a stage hardly bigger than a spotlight's span, dimensions that fail to daunt galumphing swans Batt and Staudenmayer, who peck away at each other in a hilarious send-up of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake.

Broadway needs a bit of ribbing, but it also needs audiences--indeed, theater in general needs to attract young people, and not just for the occasional treat, like an outing to The Lion King. It's heartening, therefore, to report that more theater and production companies are giving students a taste for theater, both as audiences and participants. I was impressed when attending the Stratford Festival at City Center's Much Ado About Nothing last fall to find the house crammed with young people from several New York City high schools, there as part of a "Theater Classics in the Classroom" project. What an audience they were--cheering, whistling, applauding, booing those they perceived a,s villains, wonderfully responsive to Shakespeare's lines and the actors' interpretations.

The same sort of audience later in the year greeted an excellent production of West Side Story by students of the LaGuardia High School of Music, and Art & Performing Arts, in conjunction with the New York City Opera Partnership. True, the students were cheering on their onstage colleagues, but it was the show itself that also seemed to excite them, not merely watching a friend in a role. This West Side Story was indeed a revelation, with sixteen and seventeen year olds as members of the cast, just the right ages for Romeo and Juliet, on which the musical is based, and therefore very believable. Liz Alsina, a lovely, pure-voiced senior vocal major, was everything one could wish in the role of Maria. J'Dupre Gibson, her Tony-Romeo, sang and acted with all the fervency his part required. Both were entirely professional. Shaina Millman, a feisty Anita, also has real potential. Indeed, the entire cast of Jets and Sharks was talented and convincing. Performed in the school's auditorium (seating capacity 1,200, as big as some Broadway houses), this was an exciting production from every viewpoint, one of the greatest assets being the orchestra of LaGuardia music school students under the baton of Robert Stewart, their instrumental music instructor. These youthful musicians supported the cast with a rich, full sound that did justice to Leonard Bernstein's brilliant score. Ably directed by Harry Shifman, the production sported Jerome Robbins-style choreography by Joey Smith, who teaches dance at the school. Watching this lively show with an involved, excited audience that could be vocally critical at times made for a great evening, and one longs to see more like it.

Organizations such as Lincoln Center and City Center are doing their part to open youngsters to theater, music, and dance--in the case of the Lincoln Center Institute, going a step further to encompass visual arts education. The Young People's Dance Series at City Center, a particularly rewarding project, allows students to see troupes such as American Ballet Theatre and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater when they appear there. The students then write about the experience of seeing a live show as a classroom assignment, and the best results are published in the widely distributed City Center Chronicle.

The Center's Encores! series this spring offers Babes in Arms, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, and Do Re Mi. Before seeing these shows, high school students will study and perform scenes from the musicals at school and even rehearse them at the Center's studios. As always, when I'm in an audience with students, I'm struck by their enthusiasm, quickness on the uptake, and lively response to what's onstage. There truly is a young audience for theater--it just needs to be nurtured.

As this column was going to press, word came that a new edition of Fame--The Musical was starting a six-month tour of thirty-eight cities. As anyone who followed Fame as a movie and TV series knows, it's about a group of students who attended the old High School of Performing Arts on west 46th Street. I wished that LaGuardia's West Side Story was going on tour too, to show kids outside New York City just what hard work and love of theater can really do.

Hilary Ostlere is a senior editor of Dance Magazine.