OBSERVER: Thrones Parody
Thrones! The Musical Parody, which played at the Alex Theatre in St Kilda, was something of a hit-and-miss affair in its attempts to make fun of the hit HBO TV series Game of Thrones (GoT), with moments of genuine hilarity offset by jokes that simply were not funny.
The setting for the parody is cleverly done. A group of die-hard GoT fans try to cheer up the sister of one of their number who has recently been divorced.
They do this as they gather to watch the series finale but discover that the divorcee has never seen the show so they bring her up-to-speed by reenacting highlights from all eight seasons.
Written by the US comedy ensemble Baby Wants Candy, the script was easy enough to follow. The three elements – musical numbers, support for the divorcee and GoT scene reenactments – were never confused. However, the writing/composing in all three was very uneven in quality.
Sometimes this uneven quality didn’t matter as energetic bravado performances saved the day. Some such highlights were Conor Putland’s portrayal of Jon Snow with a hilarious ridiculously thick northern English accent, the wonderful re-creation of a dragon using nothing but an umbrella and cloth and a great hip hop number depicting the red wedding. Nevertheless, such highlights were too few in number, with musical numbers marred when they were screamed rather than sung while dramatic scenes failed to move due to poor acting.
The creative team of director David Venn, assistant director and choreographer James Elmer and musical director Glen Barnett all have moments to be proud of when the show worked and the broad bawdy humour and singing paid off.
Still, the show felt under rehearsed/underwritten and suffered greatly for it.
Thrones! was a mixed bag then. Enjoyable perhaps for die-hard fans of GoT, a general more discerning audience might not have been so forgiving of the show’s numerous shortcomings.
For further information about the event: https://thrones.com.au/
Review by Peter Murphy