Amelia Atherton’s Phoebe, left, Ronnie Burden’s Joey, Alicia Belgarde’s Monica, Enzo Benvenuti’s Ross, top, Daniel Parkinson’s Chandler and Eva Hope’s Rachel in Friends! The Musical Parody. Picture: Pamela Raith
THIS is the one where you will know all the characters and iconic moments but none of the songs by book and lyric writers Bob and Tobly McSmith and composer Assaf Gleizner.
Worry not. Friends! The Musical Parody was a hit in New York and Las Vegas and those songs – and there are songs aplenty – more than punch their weight, adding to the familiar humour with character candour and knowing social commentary.
“Parody” is defined as a “humorous or mocking imitation, using the same form as the original to spoof or satirise”. How is it applied to Friends, the escapades of “the world’s most famous group of twenty-somethings” that ran for ten seasons on NBC from September 22 1994 to May 6 2004 and is still watched the world over 21 years later?
Yes, it is a humorous imitation, and yes, it applies the same TV format of a studio recording with you as the audience, but rather than “mocking”, the tone is one of affectionate teasing. Not least in its Act Two references to the pre- and post-Friends years for the famous six, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry (but understandably stopping short of mentioning his troubled death in October 2023).
As mentioned above, Andrew Exeter’s set and lighting design takes the form of a TV recording studio with cameras, information screens and wooden frameworks denoting Bathroom, Kitchen and Joey or Monica’s Apartments.
On steps warm-up act Kip Kipperson in the first of multiple roles for chameleon Knaresborough actor Edward Leigh, later to appear as perky, bleach-blond Central Perk coffee-shop worker Gunther, Tom Selleck & his moustache and Italiano stalliono Paulo. Scene-stealing at its best, topped off by Gunther’s crestfallen rendition of Part Of Their Gang.
Where’s Eva Hope’s Rachel Green when we first encounter Daniel Parkinson’s Chandler Bing, Enzo Benvenuti’s Ross Geller, Alicia Belgarde’s Monica Geller, Amelia Atherton’s Phoebe Buffay and Ronnie Burden’s Joey Tribbiani in Friends Like Us and Typical Day At Central Perk? Ah, here comes Rachel in that wedding dress, and so the pattern is established of replaying favourite moments, leading into songs full of waspish wit, longing and reflective wisdom.
Edward Leigh’s Gunther: Serving coffee and pathos at Central Perk in Friends! The Musical Parody. Picture: Pamela Raith
That’s how to cram 236 episodes into two hours or ten minutes more on first night after an unexplained technical hitch in Act Two, but the show must go on, as the saying goes, and Friends! was at its best after play was resumed.
Writers, director Michael Gyngell and actors alike capture the ticks and tropes of each character, matched by Jennie Quirk’s costume-design precision. The more you watch Belgarde, Atherton, Burden, Benvenuti and especially Hope and Parkinson, the more you warm to characterisation that is faithful, rather than a caricature, but has room for send-ups. No mean feat. Seamlessly, they become funnier too as the rhythm of sketch and song settles satisfyingly.
Parkinson, spoiler alert, doubles up as Chandler’s “long-time on-off girlfriend”, Janice, setting him the impossible task of being two people at once in comedy mayhem tradition. Oh my god, Janice’s song OMG It’s Janice is particularly good.
So many Friends nuggets are here: Joey’s How You Doin’; Chandler and Monica trying to hide their relationship; Monica’s turkey; Ross’s incessant whining and Pivot; Phoebe’s mother-fixated, dire songs and triplet pregnancy; Joey and Chandler’s pets Chick and Duck (in singing-puppet mode), and Rachel’s airport finale. All done with just the right detail, in keeping with the trademark trim editing of the 22-minute TV episodes.
What lifts Friends! The Musial Parody beyond mere pastiche is the editorial input of Bob & Tobly McSmith, forever denying Gunther more than a line and commenting on the absence of black characters in the TV series; the friends never paying at Central Perk, never having money worries, and Monica and Ross Geller being Jewish “not being a thing”, as Ross puts it. Plus how, despite all the bedroom dynamics, Rachel and Monica are never seen naked (“but we know you want to”.
Friends! The Musical Parody works as a show for the initiated, rather than an initiation ceremony, but given Friends’ popularity among old fans and younger, this is the one that’ll be there for you, when the York rain starts to pour this week.
Stars out of five? Pivoting from *** in the first half to **** for the second.
Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Oskar Eiricksson present Barn Theatre production of Friends! The Musical Parody, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday, 7.30pm; Friday, 5.30pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.