Geeks a Gogo caught a showing of "Thrones! The Musical Parody". This play is a re-telling of the TV show (not the book) "Game of Thrones" that is tailor-made for fans of the show. The play made its debut last August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edingburgh, Scotland. The showing in Chicago is the US premiere of the show, and it has been updated since last year's debut with new material to cover the newest season.
Whether you are a die-hard fan who re-watches every episode before a new season debuts, or if you only watch on occasion, as long as you are a fan of "Game of Thrones", this show is for you! The show is a musical re-telling of the first 6 seasons of the show. It all starts when a group of friends is getting ready for a viewing party for the premiere of the newest season. They soon discover that one among them hasn't actually seen the show, and needs to get caught up in the time before the viewing party.
The friends get together and gather up some everyday household items to use as props and some old clothes to use as costumes. They then come up with a hilarious and rather accurate re-telling of Game of Thrones, complete with some very well-written and hilarious songs. Not bad for an improvised play!
The play starts off with an introductory song, giving the premise of the play and warning of spoilers, and warning you that the play is about the show--NOT the book. In fact, you know that one friend that you have who read the books and makes damn well sure that everyone knows that he read the books and always has this smug, superior look on his face while you're watching the show--yeah the play pokes fun at him, too. Good. He deserves it. I mean, you just read a few books, it's not like you cured cancer or something, dude.
Anyway. The play is full of all sorts of inside jokes for "Game of Thrones" fans. It says what we are all thinking by drawing paralells between the show and material that it doubtlessly drew from, throwing in a few references to "Lord of the Rings", "The Princess Bride", and even "Harry Potter". Ever have trouble keeping tabs on all of the characters? Well, there's an entire song about that-- "These Are All the Names"--which unsurprisingly is mostly just a list of characters set to rhyme that had us questioning how well we even know the show.
The play continues, going through many of the main events and characters in the show. Tyrion gets his own song--which of course highlights his lack of a proper British accent. John Snow gets a scene, that condenses much of his story into one hilarious sequence. In the song "Stabbin", the Red Wedding gets a send-up in an outrageous hip-hop song that has Walder Frey in gold chains, and re-enacts the Red Wedding in a way that is at the same time horrifying and hilarious. The White Walkers even make an appearance as a boy band.
The second act brings more amazing numbers, that are both hilarious and expand on the wide variety of musical styles we see in this play. One of the highlights is an old-timey number in which Ramsay and Joffrey don hats and canes and sing about their gruesome mutual interests. Things get pretty over the top--until the scene is followed up by a duet featuring Cersei and Jamie that takes place on top of their son.
Towards the end is a show-stopping number celebrating Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons (and Godfather of Soul?) in which they recreate one of her rides on a dragon in a very clever and resourceful fashion using only household items as props to simulate her largest dragon, Drogon. This is a really amazing scene that shows off the talent and creativity of the cast and writers. From there, they even go on to explore some outlandish fan-fiction with their riotous number "The Ending That We Want", which takes the show to some hilariously weird places.
Of course, all we have given you is a taste of what to expect--we've saved the big reveals for when you go see the show, and we've maybe mentioned only half of the musical numbers you'll hear in the show. As for the ending...we don't even want to give you a hint of the surprise in store. All we'll say is that it is very satisfying, and manages to blend shock and humor just as well as the rest of the play.
"Thrones! The Musical Parody" is a must-see show for any "Game of Thrones" fan. It's playing at the Apollo Theater at 2540 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 through August 21st, 2016. For tickets, call the Apollo Theater at 773-935-6100, or check out the Apollo Theater Chicago website. This production stars Caitlyn Cerza, Nicholas Druzbanski, Madeline Lauzon, Beau Nolen, Christopher Ratliff, and Victoria Oliver, and is directed by Hannah Todd.
You can find more details regarding the show on our previous post here.
BY POPULAR DEMAND: Thrones the Musical Parody is extended at the Apollo Theater Chicago through Sunday, August 28. Receive 25% off tickets to all performances August 25-28 using promo code EXTEND. Get 'em while they're hot.http://bit.ly/293PF38
