Friends – The Musical Parody
Milton Keynes Theatre
US sitcom ‘Friends’ leaves Netflix this month, leaving swathes of viewers bereft and wondering what they’ll watch instead. Those of us old enough to own DVDs can rest safe in being able to watch it whenever we want, as we’ve done countless times over the 30-something years its been since it first hit our screens. The lives of a group of 20-something New Yorkers exploded into popular culture back in 1994, entering the mainstream zeitgeist and giving an entire generation an array of quotable catchphrases which they probably still use today. As is often the way with such colossal hits, it was only a matter of time before the spoof came along, and now it’s the turn of Friends, with a musical parody touring the country and playing this week at Milton Keynes Theatre.
Fans will already know the setup, and we meet our familiar faces narratively at the start of season one; Ross (Enzo Benvenuti), Monica (Alicia Belgarde), Chandler (Daniel Parkinson), Joey (Ronnie Burden), and Phoebe (Amelia Atherton). We’re in the Central Perk coffee house, Ross’ marriage has just ended, and enter Rachel (Eva Hope), fresh from leaving her fiancé at the altar, and so starts a whistle-stop recap of the series’ ten years.
From Janice, Gunther and Marcel down to “smelly cat”, “how you doin?” and “PIVOT!”, the show certainly tries to cram as many references in as possible, which fans will love. It’s often a scattergun approach, with lines and scenarios fired out at will rather than when they actually happened, and so overall the show feels like watching a rapid-fire remix rather than it striving to have any real narrative flow. Attempting to recreate experience of a TV sitcom being filmed live, the show starts with some warm-up crowd-work, which may frustrate anyone who just wants the show to start rather than encouraging audience participation.
Visually, the show certainly looks the part, and a lot of effort has gone into recreating the show’s memorable visuals, particularly in costuming (Jennie Quick) and wigs and make-up (Craig Forrest Thomas), alongside that iconic purple front door, orange sofa and lazyboy chairs.
Frustratingly, ‘Friends – The Musical Parody’ doesn’t live up to its title, being neither a strong musical or a particularly clever parody. Musically it’s incredibly forgettable, with a score (Bob & Tobly McSmith and Assaf Gleizner) that adds little to the show other than padding it out, and it would’ve been a much tighter production with the songs left out and focusing on the comedy, which again is lacking. The show often seems to forget it’s a parody, relying on just quoting lines we already know with some overacting behind it. There are moments where it steps outside of this safe space and stands on its own feet, and the show would be a far more satisfying and original experience if it leaned more into this.
Stepping into the shoes of any of these characters isn’t easy and the cast mostly do well with what they’ve got, but everything comes off “second best” with the looming shadows of the original actors impossible to ignore. Just repeating the lines isn’t enough, they don’t land in the same way, and the magic isn’t there. Daniel Parkinson is the standout as Chandler, getting somewhere close to honouring the late Matthew Perry’s greatness (as well as stealing the show as the unforgettable Janice), and Eva Hope also does a decent job of replicating Jennifer Aniston’s lovably spoilt princess, while Amelia Atherton’s Phoebe feels strangely off and jarring.
As a line in the theme song says, “it’s like you’re always stuck in second gear”, which does sum up the show, but most of the audience buying tickets won’t really mind about its shortcomings. If you just want to hear the lines you already know off by heart, revel in some 90s looks and remind yourself what a phenomenon ‘Friends’ was, this show does just that.
‘Friends – The Musical Parody’ runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 17th January 2026 before continuing on its UK tour through to May.
Details at:
https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre
https://friendsthemusicaltour.co.uk
