Friends - The Musical Parody
- Richard Evans
- 3 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Bob and Tobly McSmith, Assaf Gleizner
Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale, Oskar Eriksson; Theatre Mogul.
Storyhouse, Chester
March 30-April 4, 2026; 2 hrs 10 mins
“OMG!”, a musical based on an iconic sitcom series that lasted for 10 seasons and earned the six leads $1 million each per episode. What a good idea!
Despite the show ending 20 years ago, the Friends industry remains strong. You can do a Friends-inspired tour of New York locations for a mere £60 after having coffee in the Friends-inspired Central Perk coffee shop in Times Square. There are similar venues in Los Angeles and Boston. This show should have a ready-made audience.
The Friends musical parody therefore needs a cast capable of mimicking the sitcom's major characters realistically and the six leads here offer just this, aping the looks, mannerisms, phraseology and characters well. Ironically, it's the multi-roled Edward Leigh who has most show-stopping moments, warming-up the audience at the start of each act and playing Gunther, the long-suffering coffee shop worker who desperately wanted to be included in the gang.
The production itself is slick, fast moving and really well choreographed. Scene changes between coffee shop and apartments are handled inconspicuously and the show moves quickly, with a series of tableaux reflecting memorable highlights from the 10 years of the sitcom, while poking fun at the inconsistencies in the plot, such as the six never seeming to pay rent, or for coffee.
The episodic nature of the sitcom is also captured, the action never dwelling on one scene for long but continually shifting to one of several parallel storylines. The cast executes the song and dance routines well; the lyrics can be heard even in the gallery, and they maintain an energetic pace throughout.
There are a few problems though. The musical form is a change from the fundamental nature of the sitcom. The TV show remains popular, due partly to the friendships between the six lead characters, who had an enviable chemistry between them. The musical, in contrast, is a bit frenetic at times, and some of the tableaux are more successful than others. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments, but some scenes descend into lavatorial humour or add little to the plot.
And then there is the storyline. There are recurrent themes - the on/off relationship with Ross and Rachel being most prominent - but none of these are developed into anything we can invest in. Much more could be made of Phoebe’s surrogacy, the relationship with Monica and Chandler and Ross and Rachel’s relationship woes.
It helps if you have a decent knowledge of the sitcom, as there are plenty of in-jokes; this is definitely an evening for fans, who must be delighted to see some of their favourite characters on stage.
There was enthusiastic applause at the end but also a sense that more could be made of it, given the wealth of material available.
More info and tickets here