Jamie Lee-Morgan - Ross
Jordan Fox - Joey
Sarah Goggin - Monica
Thomas Mitchells - Chandler
Ally Retberg - Phoebe
Charlotte Elizabeth York - Rachel
Duncan Burt - Ensemble
Rebecca Withers - Ensemble
Venue: Northern Stage (Newcastle)
Date: Friday 6th September 2019
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Friendsical is a loving parody of TV series Friends in musical format. Cramming in everything from the whole 10 seasons of the multi award winning tv show. Which just so happens to be one of my all time favourites, ever! I was very excited when I first heard about this musical and when the UK tour was going to come to Newcastle I knew I just had to get tickets sorted straight away! This meant I managed to be in the front row at the incredible Northern Stage theatre which really is such an amazing place to watch a show.
The show is told mainly through Ross and what happens when his wife leaves him for another woman and on that day Rachel just happens to come back into his life. Combined with some hilarious original songs and routines, accompanied by so many references related to all six of our favourite friends. It really is hilarious from start to finish (if you love the show of course, if you don't I am sure a lot of it would go over your head).
Taking on the roles of much loved characters who we got to see over 136 episodes in the 10 year span must not be easy. However I felt the cast were fantastic at getting the mannerisms and characteristics spot on to make you feel like it was a bonus episode or two!
The set looked great and changing between the coffee house, Monica and Rachel's apartment and Joey and Chandler's apartment was pretty much what used to happen in the show anyway. We didn't get too many scenes where the characters were in other places. It poked fun wondering if they really did have jobs and how they could afford everything.
The coffee cups in the show were pretty legendary for the sizes and really did help with the coffee craze that is still going strong to this day, American chains taking over the UK. So it was brilliant to see the huge cups and take out cups getting in on the joke. We opened with the umbrellas and famous opening scene.
The musical numbers linked to something from the show Richard's moustache as he was mentioned with Chandler being jealous of him. Along with 'He is her lobster' from a crazy notion Phoebe had that Ross and Rachel were meant to be together. That is what this musical parody is supposed to be looking at the relationship between Ross and Rachel. It manages to poke fun at different things from the series, like how the children are hardly in it and they had to carry round a baby monitor to remind everyone that Emma existed! As well as other small issues people had with the show, in terms of continuity.
I still don't care what anyone says I have always and will always love Friends, that made this show extremely enjoyable for myself a big fan! Any fans of the show will enjoy Friendsical as it brings back so many memories and little things you might have thought you forgot about the show.
Well done to the cast and crew for creating this more of a celebration of everything Friends!
