At this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, you were never far from two things: a musical comedy or a parody of the hit TV show Heated Rivalry, which follows a steamy relationship that develops between two rival ice hockey players. Returning for a London stint after its acclaimed Festival run, Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody combines both and offers a terrifically fun, outrageously adult homage to the hockey series, more famous for its boiling, raunchier moments than its icy-cold games.
Spanning 70 hilarious minutes, the piece is a play within a play, with superfan ‘Susan’, a bored American housewife (May Tether), guiding audiences through a whistlestop reenactment of her favourite adult TV show. The production wastes no time in getting to the burgeoning romance between slender Canadian hockey player Shane (Zheng Xi Yong) and muscular Russian powerhouse Ilya (Joseph Dann), in a piece that champions the affection that grows between the two men while also gently ribbing the flaws, plot holes, and mature themes of the TV series.
Unsurprisingly, it leans heavily into fan service, and it works best if you are familiar with the original TV show. Dylan MarcAurele’s writing is sharp and witty, but also deftly, if not meanly, cutting in its parody of the source material. The script is relentlessly funny and impressively slick in its transitions from musical number to musical number, maintaining the momentum and energy synonymous with Fringe hits in its West End transfer here. Indeed, while the lyrics grow increasingly outrageous, the production never loses control, earning each laugh with a sharply adult rhyme or barmy visual gag, creatively crude but deliriously funny.
Directed by Alan Kliffer, the production’s five-person cast is immediately engaging. Tether’s goofy, wine-swilling housewife, complete with an enormous bouffant, is good fun, serving as the narrator who joins the episodic piece together, while also offering a gentle nod to the cheap thrill such TV shows give bored middle-aged women. Meanwhile, Yong and Dann delight as the hockey leads. They steam both on and off the ice, and their relationship is handled with great hilarity, while still punching up rather than marginalising the closeted gay couple. Andrew Berlin and Sylvie Stenson round out the quintet, multi-rolling as several minor characters from the show, which gets the biggest laughs if you know the series well, though the production tries to quickly explain who each person is without bogging it down in exposition.
The production is boosted too by its impressive musicality. MarcAurele’s witty yet mature lyrics will also make you blush, and the songs are where the TV show gets its most significant and enjoyable skewering. The songs amusingly mock Ilya’s larger-than-normal behind, while a brilliant use of Russian pop group t.A.T.u’s ‘All The Things She Said’ puts a hat (or should that be helmet) on the fiercely camp nature of this ice-hockey romp. Other adult musicals clearly influence it, yet while some gags are risqué, the production rarely strays into crass material, even in its more chaotic moments, such as a wickedly funny, deranged use of two puppets mirroring Shane and Ilya’s likenesses.
Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody earned rave reviews during its Fringe run, and it is easy to see why. This production is big on effort, heart, and fun, while also championing and teasing its source material without dismissing or deriding it. As a result, the production lands neatly, delighting fans of the series without alienating audiences unfamiliar with it.
