Nick Anastasia (left) plays Ross and Sami Griffith is Rachel in Friends: The Musical Parody.
If you’ve never watched Friends, the TV megahit that aired from 1994–2004, that wouldn’t preclude you from enjoying Friends: The Musical Parody. It’s hysterically funny, and concisely captures the idiosyncrasies of every one of the six characters who provokes, pairs off with, or parts ways with another.
The script centers on the characters’ incongruous lifestyles, but it also speaks to a more universal reality. It captures the culture of recently-out-of-college and rudderless twenty- to thirty-somethings, full of aspirations and pretensions. Launched into a world they barely comprehend, they long to be self-possessed and fulfilled but are truly codependent. The show has just enough wry references to the Friends series to make the audience feel privy to an inside joke.
From left: Griffith, Anastasia, AC Rutherford as Tom Selleck, and Maggie McMeans as Monica.
If the resemblance between the reconstructed love lives and foibles of Monica, Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, Joey, and Chandler were not déjà vu enough, the physical resemblance between the actors and the TV cast is uncanny, in large part due to wig designer Conor Donnelly. The pre-millennium wardrobe, such as Rachel’s puffed-sleeve wedding dress in Scene 1, reinforces this dated sense of wonderment.
Some characters are outside the neurosis-filled inner circle of siblings Monica and Ross and their pals and sometimes lovers, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey, and Rachel, who navigate crises through a romantic revolving door. Three characters—the caricatures of an aged Tom Selleck; the outlandish, over-the-top Janice; and Phoebe’s “evil” twin Ursula (played by AC Rutherford)—are foils to the six Friends, and their comedic appeal operates much like the exaggerated, stock characters of commedia dell’arte or even Hamlet’s Polonius.
Take Ursula, the “evil twin” of the unenviable Phoebe, who is good-natured to the core. It’s true that fortune has eluded Phoebe, as have love and musical talent. One of the play’s running jokes is that in every song, she mentions her late mother’s suicide. Nevertheless, after her obnoxious twin Ursula enters, the pity one feels for Phoebe, her fruitless efforts as a singer-songwriter, and her lack of self-awareness, turns to empathy. Then there’s Janice—an overbearing, overdressed, oversexed loudmouth who gloats about her conquests in an exaggerated New York accent. Rutherford’s portrayal of Ursula and Janice is masterly.
Rutherford (left) with Jenna Cormey as Phoebe.
The most absurd comic scene caricatures a wrinkled, cane-dependent Tom Selleck, named for the actor himself, not the character of Richard Burke he played in the series. Burke was much older than Monica, but in the parody Selleck is elderly, hunched and impotent. The sequence’s highlight is a send-up of the show’s casual sex. In the song “Two Girls, One Condom,” Monica and Rachel haggle. Despite cavalier sexual explicitness about their proposed trysts with Selleck and Ross, respectively, the women’s conundrum is that the show—or rather the TV series—can’t be explicit. The two couples sing: “We’re gonna have sex on TV/It’s rated PG-13/You won’t see anything/Because of censoring.”
Playwrights/lyricists Bob and Tobly McSmith have embedded some “outtake-like” humor into the script, consisting of little jibes aimed at the casts’ lives, such as a remark about David Arquette, the real-life ex-husband of Courteney Cox (Monica). They sing about the Friends stars’ salaries in the final scene: “Every 22 minutes episode we made one million dollars/That’s 45,454 dollars per minute/or 757 dollars a second.”
Friends: The Musical Parody flows so smoothly that it belies the daunting task of pulling the show together. The McSmiths have captured the frenetic lives of the original Friends characters. Director Tim Drucker has brilliantly earmarked the limited stage space to accommodate frequent set modifications, designated aisles for cast entrances, and shifts from the Central Perk hangout to Rachel and Monica’s West Village apartment. This facilitates costume and character changes. David Rigler’s ingenious costumes, especially the primary-colored umbrellas in the dances choreographed by Billy Griffin, are stunning.
Domenic Servidio (left) as Joey, with Rutherford and Anastasia. Photographs by Russ Rowland.
The show’s ultimate vitality, though, lies in Assaf Gleizner’s music, Ethan Anderson’s musical direction, and Matthew Fischer’s deftly mastered, recorded soundtracks. The latter are so well-synched with the performers that they’re nearly indistinguishable from a live musical ensemble. The often exaggerated and slapstick acting is perfect for the parody’s game plan. Sami Griffiths (Rachel), Nick Anastasia (Ross), Domenic Servidio (Joey), Maggie McMeans (Monica), Jenny Cormey (Phoebe), and Rutherford (Chandler and others) joyously depict their scripted counterparts.
Despite the fun poked at Friends’ sex-crazed characters, dated storyline, and costumes, the last resounding song by this flaky group of talented Friends almost-clones affirms that, “We’ll be there for you,” that is, not only for each other, but for their audience.
Friends: The Musical Parody runs at the Jerry Orbach Theater, 210 West 50th St., through Sept. 19. Evening performances are 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and at varying times on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. For details, call (212) 921-7862 or visit ticketmaster.com.
