#EdFringe: Thrones! The Musical – Review
★★★★★
Are you ready for a musical scathing critique of 7 1/3 seasons of the best television ever?
Hands down one of the funniest things I saw at Fringe this year, Thrones! The Musical tries to fix season 8 of Game of Thrones while trying to explain to a non-viewer all the highs and lows of the last 9 or so years of the television saga.
From spoilers of Game of Thrones to spoilers of every major TV of the last 10 or so years, huge hating on those who read the books and like to use that knowledge to make TV show watchers feel inferior, or physically recreating the opening sequence of the show, this show has something for TV show, book lovers and fantasy lovers a like.
Trying to throw a party for her divorce, and to celebrate the final season, friends gather in Linda’s apartment to cheer her up, and use her TV. But finally admitting that she’s never seen the show, her super fan friends decide to recreate 8 seasons of TV right there for her (‘Thank god I brought my box of wigs!” one friend proclaims).
As they act out key moments of the storyline, from a rap about the Red Wedding called ‘Stabbin’ (which honestly at least half of the audience booed when the Red Wedding scene started), through to a song about ‘Pushing Them Out’, (like Bran out the window and Lysa Arryn out the Moon Door), the audience roar with laughter and get more and more into the show, laughing, gasping, and just about slapping their knees with delight. Hearts break in a completely a cappella song by Hodor on Holding the Door (I’m not going to lie, I actually got a little teary), and roar with laughter in ‘You Know Nothing’ (some of the songs are available on their website for your enjoyment).
They make fun of accents across the show, make sure that rouge coffee cup spotted in Season 8 got a mention, and brought back all your least and most favourite moments for the show, while also making Trump references, providing advice on Linda’s divorce, and dedicate an entire song to Jon Snow’s shit ponytail. The incredible attention to detail to include as many Game of Thrones references is commendable, as is the show’s ability to hit the pop culture zeitgeist in all the right moments.
The vocals on this show are actually brilliant, and the cast is excellent – just because it’s a parody, quality is still at the forefront of the show. They’ve chucked every reference in the young adult/ fantasy/ fiction world into the show, mainly in Daenerys’ title, which includes such honorable mentions as ‘Daenerys Stormborn, First of Her Name, Detective Pikachu, Assistant Manager at Nandos, Lady Marmalade, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’ and so on, including references to Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, and just a hint of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Special mentions go to the actors who turn out to be having a bit of an affair while also cosplaying as Jon and Daenerys, and Eric Michaud who plays everyone from Hodor to Tyrion Lannister, while also playing Hagrid in the Voldemort parody musical that shares some of Thrones! co-creators.
With costumes assembled from household items (some gorgeous bath matt and shower curtain combos create our initial intro to the Night Watch) through to full blown Game of Thrones style costumes create a believable and fun world in Linda’s living room. The set is brilliantly used to convey anything from pushing Bran from the tower, to Ser Jorah awkwardly loitering for Daenarys around every corner.
The show is flawless fun, with brilliant music, every Game of Thrones reference you can dream of, very well done costumes and costume changes, and a magnificent cast of 6 actors whose comedic timing is insane. The pace of this show immense but every minute is enjoyable.
They tackle the grand challenge of trying to fix the final season, by giving you the ending we truly deserve: Fun fact, every twist was in fact Ayra wearing a Faceless Man mask using her long forgotten/ignored skills of changing faces to reap havoc, but not before George R R Martin comes and kills us all, in a way only he could. Ridiculous, funny, completely on point.
Thrones! the Musical Parody played (to a sold out crowd) at Assembly George Square at the Gordon Aikman Theatre until 25 August. More info.
More info on the show - https://www.thronesmusical.com/
