FRIENDS THE MUSICAL PARODY | UK TOUR @ EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE
★★★
“Definitely one for the fans…”
Friends The Musical Parody is not so much a ‘parody’ as a loving, if occasionally irreverent, tribute to the NBC sitcom that ran for 10 seasons and is still regularly rerun on streaming services worldwide today.
The story of six friends flat sharing and working in New York, the series introduced viewers to characters that now live on in the hearts of a generation – runaway bride Rachel Green, obsessive compulsive Monica Geller, quirky free spirit Phoebe Buffay, jobbing actor Joey Tribbiani, the gamophobic Chandler Bing, and goofy Ross Geller.
Built around a clever conceit, the audience in the theatre are the studio audience during a recording of the comedy and have their own part to play. There’s even a warm up man at the top of both Act One and Act Two to get them laughing, lead a vocal warm up, a Mexican wave and even a communal sing along before the ‘stars’ of the show appear.
Stepping into the shoes of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, the late Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer in the starring roles are Eva Hope, Alicia Belgarde, Amelia Atherton, Ronnie Burden, Daniel Parkinson and Enzo Benvenuti, respectively. They’re joined by the multi-tasking Edward Leigh in supporting roles, including the Warm Up Guy, Gunther and Tom Selleck.
Most capture the idiosyncrasies of their on screen counterpart with nuance, with just a couple of exceptions where the ‘parody’ becomes farce, stripping of the truth of the original portrayals. Leigh as Gunther and Selleck and others, offers scene stealing turns whenever he is on stage.
Played out on Andrew Exeter sparse set, which Warner Sound Stage 24 during the ‘live filming’ cleverly lends itself to, the designer saves his finest reveal for the all singing all dancing grand finale. Before that, the show’s signature sofa takes centre stage throughout whether in Central Perk Coffee Shop or the friends’ Bedford Street apartments.
If Michael Gyngell’s snappy direction brings out the energy, neurosis and joie de vivre of the six flatmates, Bob and Toby McSmith’s script, by the very nature of their challenge, is bitty. It shoehorns favourite lines and tropes from a decade of material into a couple of hours and, consequently, there’s an element of ‘Friends Bingo’ to proceedings, with plenty of moments for fans of the show to tick off.
Very much aimed at die hard fans of the series, the first act draws heavily on early episodes of the show while Act Two, via an opening recap and selected scenes, romps through the period 1994-2004, lightly touching on storylines from 236 episodes while also acknowledging landmark off screen moments – the cast were the first to earn $1 million each an episode for one.
Musically, Assaf Gleizner’s score may not always spark the famous Friends Fountain into life, but songs like How You Doin’, Pivot, Oh! My God It’s Janice, and The Ballroom of Fat Monica are all catchy toe-tappers. Others, like Chick and Duck come across as padding and while there is some padding throughout, mostly it goes down well with the predominantly Gen X audience reliving the nostalgia of their youth.
And if the iconic theme tune never quite gets the airing perhaps hoped for, its riff is teasingly present, never more so than in the big finale where the core tenet of Friends shines through, ‘I’ll be there for you, cause you’re there for me too.’
Full tour details and tickets HERE
