Every year, there is one show at the Edinburgh Fringe that feels simultaneously like a glaringly obvious response to the zeitgeist and the embodiment of the festival’s insanity. Fresh from a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run, Heated Rivalry The Unauthorised Musical Parody is exactly this year’s answer to that call.
I should begin with a disclaimer that I’m far from the casual enjoyer of Heated Rivalry, having been known to say that I can stream all six episodes of the series behind closed eyelids. I knew that my extensive knowledge of the source material would be both a blessing and a curse, and in being the parody’s exact target audience, I thought I knew exactly what to expect. However, both my praise and criticisms of the show ended up taking me by complete surprise.
I think the show responds to the mass obsession with Heated Rivalry in an adequately ridiculous and unhinged way, as it parodies not only the source material itself but also its wide range of audiences. The musical is narratively framed through the lens of three bored housewives (all of which are named Susan) who act as the show’s perverted Greek chorus, poking fun at the series’ cult following of heterosexual women who deem it as a raunchy guilty pleasure. However, it’s also clear both in the humour and framing that the parody actively strives to be the love letter to the queer community at the heart of the series’ success. Whether it succeeds to be that or not is another story.
I definitely underestimated how impressive the original score would be. The songs liven up the key beats of the story with catchy hockey-match ensemble numbers, as well as shameless innuendo-filled ballads. The dedication in production, and wholeheartedness of every performance are both a testament to fans of Heated Rivalry, but also to the campiness of musical theatre culture itself. There’s a moment where Shane Hollander does a rendition of Hamilton’s ‘Hurricane,’ Scott Hunter is played entirely by one lucky audience member, the practical effects simulating Shane and Ilya’s sexual encounters get increasingly ridiculous and elaborate — the absurd moments of the show are truly Fringe entertainment at its finest.
Despite loving the self-aware humour of the parody, I found more than a few of the script’s more meta jokes about the main characters’ physiques to be cheap shots. Of course, a Heated Rivalry parody cannot exist without the series’ infamous physical elements, and I fully acknowledge that we’re talking about fiction based on fiction — still, at times I found it hard to not think about the two very much non-fictional bodies also being parodied here. There’s a moment around the halfway mark which illustrates this most offensively, where Connor Storrie’s actual childhood YouTube videos are used in voiceover as a punchline to a joke about Ilya showing signs of homosexuality from a young age. I found both this and the endlessly repeated gag about Ilya’s ass being unnaturally and even traumatically huge, to be in poor taste.
Overall, the Unauthorised Musical Parody will keep any Heated Rivalry fans entertained this Fringe, despite the show occasionally missing the net.
Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorised Musical Parody is on until the 31st of August at Udderbelly at Underbelly George Square. Buy Tickets here.
Image by Matthew Murph.
