FRIENDS! The Musical Parody At Milton Keynes Theatre Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Janine Rumble
Wow! What a brilliant night full of laughter, nostalgia and poignancy! A must watch for any Friends fan or for anyone who loved watching Friends back in the day. If you are a Friends fan, then this musical parody is a must-see event. I loved every second of it! From walking into the theatre, where there was a really nice touch in the foyer, with the iconic Friends sofa set up for people to take photos on it. Of course, I had to have my photo taken on it, to sitting in my seat and seeing the stage. It was pure excitement.
The stage itself was not set up how I thought it would be. I thought it would be like you see on the TV with the boys and the girls apartments set apart from each other separated by the infamous corridor, but no, instead, you get a stage set up like the back part of a tv set, complete with wooden walls and large wooden structures that have the sets written on them, which throughout the show are wheeled round to reveal the different parts of the set, so clever. You are made to feel like you are attending a filming of the iconic show at a TV recording studio. It is very, very clever how they do this so you feel like you are the live audience, which is the description in the title.
The show begins with a warmup act, just like in a real filming of a show. He came on and explained that the entire concept of the show and it was just brilliant, just so brilliant. You felt like you were actually watching a filming of the show. There was a camera person filming throughout different parts of it above the stage they were TV screens so you could actually see yourself in the audience. The warmup guy played by Edward Leigh got the audience hyped up and ready for watching the show, this included a Mexican wave, vocal warm-ups (nothing to be scared of just shouting yay at certain points).
After the interval, there was a little Friends quiz where you had to shout out when the answer came up, which was good fun. The warm up guy explained the premise of the show at the beginning and just got everybody hyped up and ready which was good fun just like they do in the normal filming of friends back in the day.
The props were iconic too, from the Central Perk set with the sofa set upon a wooden box that is slid across the stage, to the Central Perk windows and doors that are rolled onto the set. There is even a little stage for Phoebe to perform on. The boys’ and girls’ apartments were on point with their props too. But probably the most famous prop was the purple door with the yellow frame on it.
At the beginning of the of the show the door appears in the middle of the stage and when it is unveiled everybody cheered loudly. It made me laugh thinking people are cheering for a door, an inanimate object, but it’s so iconic!
From start to finish Friends the musical parody is just brilliant. It is a Barn Theatre Production featuring a cast of 11, and what a cast they are! Absolutely brilliant, without being caricatures of the original cast!
Their mannerisms were just on point. They must have watched Friends over and over again, studying their characters meticulously. My favourite was Daniel Parkinson who played Chandler Bing. Oh my goodness, his movements, his dancing around the stage, if you didn’t know any better you would swear it was Matthew Perry. It was just so good! Yes they didn’t sound exactly like them, which I thought was really good as I didn’t want it to be an imitation of them. It was their take on those characters and it was just so cleverly done.
What really helped the cast was their costumes and the attention to detail that went into the costumes. You don’t realise how iconic these outfits become but then as soon as you see the characters wearing the costumes, you are immediately transported to that episode when they wore it.
At the time when they were filming the original TV show, I bet they didn’t know these outfits were going to be iconic but they really paid attention to detail on the set and in the costumes. It is just amazing down to the shoes down to colour the tights that they wore the style. I mean it was just 90s and nostalgia and just so brilliant it just really helped you see those characters in the cast. I think if you hadn’t had the costumes so on point it would not be unbelievable combined in the mannerisms, the costumes and the acting it just made for a brilliant show.
Amelia Atherton was brilliant as Phoebe Buffat. Her arm movements, how she swings her arms like Phoebe and plucking at people’s auras was brilliant. The wigs that she wore were really good as well.
Alicia Belgarde as Monica Geller, when you look at her in the programme, what she looks like in real life to how she looks as Monica, night and day, completely different! You would not think she was the actress who played her, but put a black wig on her and she is transformed into Monica and she was really funny.
Enzo Benvenuti as Ross Geller was brilliant, absolutely brilliant, laugh out loud brilliant. His mannerisms, the way he spoke was just so funny, paired up with some of his outfits (especially the leather trousers) had me laughing out loud. Ronnie Burden as Joey Tribbiani, was very good. He just didn’t have the proper Joey Tribbiani ‘How You Doin’ look and feel unfortunately, but there were definitely glimpses of it.
Eva Hope as Rachel Green was really good as well and then Edward Leigh plays a myriad of iconic characters, including Gunther, with a really, really bad blonde wig, but very funny. He also plays Tom Selleck and Paolo. Again, very, very, very funny. There are also a few iconic moments with Janice, who she is played by will remain a secret, I will let you wait to see because it is hilarious and the mannerisms and the ‘Oh My Gawd’ and the flapping of the hands is just brilliant. Daniel Parkinson as Chandler was my hands down favourite character.
The musical takes you through every single episode of friends that is something from every single episode and it is just so very clever as you sit and watch it. It takes you back to having seen it on the TV to having sat on your own sofa and watched it and you remember all those parts.
If you are a Friends fan, and even if you’re not, I would highly recommend go and see this laugh out loud funny show. The chick and the duck also make an appearance, as does Marchel the monkey and oh my God, I nearly wet myself laughing. Absolutely unexpected, but absolutely hysterical. Just so funny!
I give this show a huge 5/5 and highly recommend it to all.
Friends The Musical Parody is on at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 17th January. Tickets are priced from £40 and can be bought from the theatre box office or online.
Rating: 5/5