It was with a mild sense of trepidation my girlfriend and I took to our seats for Forbidden Broadway last night, albeit for entirely different reasons.

A musical ignoramus, I feared the parodies of West End hits would fly over my head.

A musical connoisseur, she was worried about seeing her favourite shows mercilessly lampooned.

We needn't have worried.

For me, the satire was broad enough that a passing knowledge, rather than an ability to reel off a list of leading ladies from Les Miserables, would suffice.

For her, though few shows escape the mickey-taking, the missiles are more gentle barbs than poison arrows in the series of take-offs.

It's little surprise Forbidden Broadway has been such a hit stateside, where it has been running for 30 years, emulating the success of the very shows it sends up.

After all, it enjoys the best of both worlds, containing the tunes which have enthralled theatre goers while pricking the egos of the writers, producers and stars who have made their millions from them.

What's more of a surprise is that it has previously failed to catch on this side of the Atlantic, though that could soon change with the new show focusing more on the latest West End and big screen musicals.

There are few targets which escape the claws of the four-strong cast, from Elaine Page to Hugh Jackman, though those claws are sharpened for the biggest names.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh is the subject of one of the more vicious skits, in which he is hilariously portrayed as a puffed-up gigolo exploiting the US fetish for dumbed down, cliche-ridden melodrama - but, as the writers have point out, he's probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Forbidden Broadway, at the Vaudeville Theatre (photo by Alastair Muir). Even the great Stephen Sondheim isn't spared.

There's an added irony in that the cast have been in many of the shows to which they take the knife, which perhaps explains why they do so with such relish. Judging from the hubbub on opening night, many in the audience also knew their way around a West End stage.

Everyone will have their favourites but for me it was the extended Les Mis parody, the stars of which are portrayed as poor wretches trapped amid the stage machinery in their never-ending agony.

Even riffs on the shows I'd never seen, like West Side Story, elicited a chuckle, but there's an added pleasure in watching them spoof the shows you know and love get the treatment.

Their send-up of Once, for which I must confess a soft spot, perfectly pricked the show's pretensions and left even those on stage struggling to keep a straight face,

The jokes themselves are not always the sharpest but the imagination on display and the skill with which it's all done - from the quality of the impersonations and singing to the spot-on costumes - mean the laughs keep coming.

Forbidden Broadway, at the Vaudeville Theatre (photo by Alastair Muir). Ben Lewis and Damian Humbley send up Miss Saigon

You may never look at your favourite musical in quite the same way after watching Forbidden Broadway.

But, for all the dented egos, such is the obvious affection for the industry it's ultimately only likely to fatten the wallets of those it gleefully ribs.

* Forbidden Broadway is at the Vaudeville Theatre, in the Strand, until Saturday, November 22. For tickets, priced £20-75, visit www.nimaxtheatres.com or call the box office on 0844 482 9675.