Friends – The Musical Parody
Sunderland Empire Theatre | 23rd September 2025
Invited| Review by Stephen Stokoe
This is my second time at Sunderland Empire in as many weeks. Last week, however, I was not reviewing but both shows offered an imaginative take on the “No photos, no videoing and please turn off your mobile phones” message at the start of the show. In this case, they had warm up presenter ‘Kip’ (Edward Leigh) taking on the duties, as the hard-working stage crew were preparing the set for a take of an episode of Friends. It was more than just that though. Kip whipped up the audience in a fun kind of vocal warm up encouraging audience participation and the audience in this opening night of the musical at Sunderland Empire lapped it up and played along. The set (Andrew Exeter) made to look like a TV recording studio, added to the ambience and worked very well indeed.
In words and music, the opening number resembled but did not copy the theme tune to Friends, made famous by The Rembrandts but it was close enough to be familiar and as Ross (Enzo Benvenuti), Monica (Alicia Belgarde), Phoebe (Amelia Atherton), Chandler (Daniel Parkinson), and Joey (Ronnie Burden) took to the stage, they looked every bit their smash hit and award winning US sitcom counterparts.
As this point, I need to mention, that I have never seen a whole episode of Friends all the way through so I was at something of a disadvantage to a large percentage of the audience this evening in picking up on some of the in-jokes presented visually or performed before me in this production, however, perhaps by osmosis, I certainly knew enough about the characters, to be able to appreciate the likeness of the hard-working performers this evening.
One element I thoroughly enjoyed was the bigging up of Central Perk owner, Gunter. In the long running hit TV show, he is very much a bit part but his wings are unclipped (and ruthlessly clipped again) in this production which is as comical as it is silly. He even gets his own ‘want’ song and is characterised to great effect, once again, by Edward Leigh.
The synopsis of this show is essentially a linear whistle stop tour of Friends Greatest Hits with catch phrases, significant moments, and fan favourites all be trotted out at great speed which is necessary considering the original show on which this musical is parodying aired for just shy of ten years and some 236 episodes.
You will note that I have missed one ‘Friend’ out and that is because Rachel Green makes a special entrance a little after the start resplendent in a wedding dress and once again very much a carbon copy of Jennifer Aniston who played her in the original series. As well as marked Friends references, there are several nods to other things that have happened in the respective actors’ careers or lack thereof, their many marriages and relationships and other events of significance from the period of the long-running comedy juggernaut.
The music (Assaf Geizner – words by Bob & Tobly McSmith) is great fun and borrows a great deal from other musical films and theatre, including ‘Chicago’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ (‘ Part of Their Gang’ written by Jake Brunger and Pippa Leary) which were particularly satisfying for a less fanatical Friends aficionado.
The second act opened with two of the best songs in the show, the manic We Were on a Break which time travels the audience effortlessly through several seasons of the sitcom, through to ‘Classic Sitcom Situation’ which had the entire cast performing close choreography (Myles Brown.) Sandwiched in between these two was the trippy but almost inevitable introduction of Marcel the Capuchin Monkey who entered and departed almost as quickly.
In terms of characterisation and accents (Jessica Martin) and costumes and wigs (Jennie Quirk and Craig Forrest-Thomas), this show cannot be faulted. This is every Friends fan’s dream but perhaps, it was a little ambitious to condense so many episodes into one musical parody and at times feels a bit too manic. The sound and lighting, as is sometimes the case on opening night of a shorter run, could have been sharper and clearer.
That said, I have no doubt, and as the audience tonight proved, Friends fans will lap this up and the performances of the cast, along with the intimate nature of the set, will feel that they are, almost, in Central Perk with the cast of their favourite buddies. There is enough for others, not in the know, to enjoy this production even if some of the references go sailing over their heads.
An entertaining night at the theatre and it is nice to know that, even if more than 20 years has elapsed that our Friends are still there for us.