11 – 15 October

It’s not often that I feel sorry for a cast of actors, they are after all working, which is not something which can be said of some eighty per cent of their fellow professionals. And actors rarely if ever want to look foolish or bad in front of an audience; a fact which has often led to the success of an otherwise under-rehearsed or poorly directed production. They can usually be relied upon to find some extra energy and fizz to justify the audience’s parting with their ‘hard earned’. However when presented with a threadbare script, of which it might be said in its defense that it is ‘esoteric’, one’s sympathy is aroused.

I use the term ‘esoteric’ in light of the fact that the hit television series, Friends, was very much a generational success, dealing with 20-30 somethings’ emotional and occupational development in the 90’s. If you were a fan at the time then the references in the play would likely have meant something, as they did to a handful of last night’s audience in the Theatre Royal. Indeed the biggest laugh of the evening came from the whole cast corpsing over a woman guffawing at apparently odd moments, presumably having been tickled by some plot or character reference.

The problem with this offering is not that it was poorly acted – in fact there was much talent on show- rather that having set out to be a parody, with the aim of good-natured mockery of the original, it in fact delivers on the level of burlesque with exaggerated mimicry slipping all too often into twisted caricature. The thread that was supposed to hold the thing together was a history of the relationship between Ross and Rachel (if you don’t know who they are I’m afraid you’ll be none the wiser by the end), in fact what was on offer was a gallimaufry of plot snippets from the run of the TV shows. Pregnant pauses remained unborn and musical numbers appeared to be inserted ad hoc for mere diversion rather than any plot advancement. Nevertheless singing and dancing was performed with no lack of vim by the cast.

One pleasant surprise was the guest star turn, Kimberly Wyatt of Pussycat Dolls fame, a lady who can clearly act and had the measure of the show, strutting around as if she owned the stage (which she did).

If you were a fan of the TV show this musical offering might raise a smile of recognition or nostalgia, but if you weren’t it’s unlikely to help you understand why it ran so long and captured the devotion of a generation.

★★☆☆☆  Graham Wyles, 12 October, 2022

Photo credit:  Friendsical