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Picture
Friendsical, a parody musical about Friends
Civic Theatre, Chelmsford
14th - 19th October 2019

​✭☆☆☆☆ 1/5
In the immortal words of Janice, the one time needy girlfriend of Chandler Bing, “OH. MY. GOD!”

Friendsical, for copyright and legal reasons cannot be associated with Friends, the award winning tv sitcom.  One has to wonder whether the ‘powers that be’ of the Friends tv show empire were given a big old heads up on this theatrical creation and instantly contacted their lawyers to make sure that they would absolutely, certainly, beyond any doubt, have nothing to do with it.  This may sound a tad harsh but believe me, I have seen some pretty awful shows in my time but this one is right up there on the jaw droppingly awful, do I walk out during the interval, scale.

I’m actually still trying to get my head around how to explain the concept of this show but here goes.  It would appear, although the explanation was rather confusing, that the character of Ross in Friendsical is playing himself putting on a musical of his own Friends storyline, with the other ‘Friends’, also playing the same characters who are in the tv show.  There’s an ‘ON AIR/OFF AIR’ light at the left top corner of the stage to indicate to the audience that this is a play within a play within a tv show…..I know, right…I’ve even confused myself with that sentence!

Anyway, what actually happens during an extremely drawn out 1 hour and 30 minute Act 1 is basically a re-enactment of Series 1 Episode 1 of Friends and then goes on and on, and on, and on, skipping through Episodes and, ironically, the boring bits with the actors playing Ross, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Phoebe and Monica in all their quirkiness as though their lives depended on it.

The show chucks in some interesting musical numbers with tunes that wouldn’t have gone amiss on CBeebies, although I expect on CBeebies you may actually be able to make out the words of the songs, which in this show were possibly very witty if only we could have heard them.   

I had to psych myself up for the 55 minute Act 2; I’d planned to stay on the soft drinks but found myself grabbing a large white wine in the hope it might numb the inevitable pain of watching the rest of the show.

Whoever wrote this show was obviously banking on trading in on the Friends franchise and lure in the huge fanbase and one that is still growing thanks to the many re-runs of the show on tv.  Also, whoever wrote this show should understand that they cannot bill this production as a parody.  A parody should be an imitation of the style of the show, with over the top exaggerations for comic effect.  This is purely an imitation of the actual show with character exaggerations that quite frankly make you want to reach out and slap them for the most part.  I’ve never seen so much gurning, screeching and hamming up to an audience.  The writer has completely missed the point (and the plot it would seem).  Simply said, it just doesn’t work.

I absolutely have to take my hat off to the actors in this production.  Regardless of whether this show is a huge dud (it is) or not, they put in 100% energy and enthusiasm into their performances, which is massively commendable and to their credit.  Any director/producer looking for actors with talent, loyalty and commitment, look no further because these guys have it in abundance.  They must be exhausted and are probably ticking off the dates on their calendars until they can get out of having to ever perform this shocking musical ever again.  The 1 star is for you guys.

I didn’t get a programme and this is probably a blessing as I cannot name anyone involved in the production.  Suffice to say, could this BE any worse?  I think we all know the answer to that one….


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