Friends the Musical: a parody review

We've just been to see "Friends the Musical, a parody", and we weren't really sure what to expect.

At the beginning of this year we went to see Only Fools and Horses the Musical, and we were really, really impressed by it. It was basically 2 hours of all the best scenes from Only Fools fused into one story. (Read my review here.) So we hoped this might be the same about Friends, as we know all of the gags and all the episodes really well. It was the fact that it had "parody" if the title that concerned us slightly because what would that mean?

As it was, you saw crew, you had a warm up act, you saw the stage, and staging labeled as if it was sets, and the crew would come on and move things around. So it was very much like you were watching a TV show being recorded live, but the characters were always in character. The actors, the main six actors were always the main six of the Friends cast.

They did, however make a lot of references to the real world all the way through. So for example, when Monica started dating Richard, she was just very excited and screaming about the fact that she was dating Tom Selleck, and all the way through his little snippet on stage, they referred to him as Tom Selleck. Near the end, when they were asking Rachel who the father was of the baby she was pregnant with, they asked if it was Brad Pitt or Vince Vaughan. And then later they made some remark to Angelina Jolie, and she said something rude about Jolie. Meanwhile, Phoebe was very excited that she was going to marry Paul Rudd.

What made it a parody, particularly, was the way they poked fun at holes in the whole plot of Friends. In one of the first scenes, for example, they are joking about how whether it's before work, during work, or after work, they're always in the coffee shop called Central Park, because it's the only coffee shop in New York. At the end, Gunther presents them with their tab for a million dollars because they've not paid for anything in 10 seasons.

And then they go to Monica's apartment, and sing a song about how she can afford 3000 square feet in New York. You can hear snippets of that song on the official musical Instagram here.

Tom did actually feel a little defensive of the show at the beginning when it seemed like it was always going to be mocking the original tv series, but it eased off - or we eased into it.

The comedy doesn't so much come from the lines. Nearly every line spoken by the main six cast, unless they're referencing Tom Selleck, Brad Pitt, or something in real life, is a quote from Friends. So, it's lots and lots of one-liners. Whereas Only Fools and Horses was one complete story made up of whole scenes from different episodes of Only Fools and Horses, so you would recognise a whole scene, the Friends parody is lots and lots of single line jokes, even literally odd words or expressions thrown in at random times, to just sort of speed you through the whole ten series.

And they do do a lot of it really quickly. Tom Selleck may be only in it for 2 or 3 minutes, but they wrap it all up in the same way as his and Monica's relationship ends in the TV show; they split up because he doesn't want to have a family.

Then when Ross comes back from China, Rachel rushes in with a plaster on her head because she's come from the airport with a head injury, and the words are, word for word, like they are when she gets back to Monica's apartment. But then, within a few seconds it leads them into the "I'm so over you" / "when were you under me?!" lines which should have come from a drunken voicemail, before then they're suddenly kissing, which should have been in the coffee shop. So they managed to pretty well get the story wrapped up in seconds, all within one setting.

Can you watch Friends the Musical if you're not a big Friends fan?

If you don't know Friends inside out (or pretty well), you wouldn't have a clue what's going on or be able to follow the story. It is basically a whistle stop tour of "this is what happened in seasons 1 - 10" rather than a 2 hour story.

The comedy, or silliness, really, comes not so much from the lines as it would if you were watching Friends for real, more from the comedic character that plays Gunther, the warm-up act, and other characters like Marcel the monkey and Paulo (he was actually really good as Paulo!).

The other big comedy character is Janice, who, slight spoiler alert, is played by the same actor that is playing Chandler, and he honestly does do Janice very, very well, but the fact that they've basically got a pantomime dame in the show kind of gives you a feel for what the whole thing is like.

Are the cast of Friends the Musical the same as the real cast?

Without wishing to compare it relentlessly to Only Fools and Horses, the cast of Only Fools and Horses were incredible. From a distance, they were absolute carbon copies of the characters you know and love from the program.

Meanwhile, the Friends cast, with the exception of Monica, weren't quite as brilliant impersonations of the actors that you know in the parts. I say with the exception of Monica, because Monica, played by Alicia Belgarde, was absolutely phenomenal. She looked the part, she sounded the part, she squealed "I know" exactly perfectly, and she was brilliant.

A close second was Rachel. She maybe didn't look quite the same in her face, but you can't help your face. She still did the part very, very well.

Chandler had brilliant delivery of the lines. He really delivered the lines and moved around the stage with the exact movements and expression of Matthew Perry, it was just his tone of voice that made it not quite a perfect impression.

Ross had a lot of good mannerisms, as did Phoebe, but they didn't quite nail it for me. But they were all absolutely fantastic singers. So, even though they weren't necessarily all brilliant impersonators of Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry, they were brilliantly, brilliantly talented people.

Are the songs any good in Friends the Musical?

TV show musicals don't always have the best songs to my mind - a musical needs songs of course, but they're never as epic as songs in shows that were originally musicals such as Wicked (read my review of the stage show) or Phantom of the Opera.

But the songs in Friends, on the whole, aren't bad. I didn't come away singing any, so there were no super catchy ones, but they were good - and - as I've said before - brilliantly sung. They often were slight homages to well known songs, such as when Gunther sang a song very much like the Little Mermaid's "Part of your World", but not quite the same tune and not quite the same words; he wanted to be "Part of their Gang". But there would be the odd sample or homage, like when the girls are in the bathroom singing about Tom Selleck and there's a bit of a nineties song there. Overall, the musical pieces were very entertaining to watch because the singers were so brilliant.

Would I recommend Friends the Musical, a Parody?

As we were leaving Tom heard people behind us say that it was better than they were expecting... so we don't know what they were expecting!

Overall, it's entertaining if you're a Friends fan, and the talent of the cast is amazing - but if it wasn't for that (and especially Monica) - it might be one to miss. As it is, the talent makes it an entertaining night out for true Friends fans.

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