Aaron C. Rutherford Is 'Friends' With Chandler

Cast of Friends! The Musical Parody

By Darlene Donloe

From 1994 to 2004, the sitcom Friends was a juggernaut on television.

The show, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, made television icons out of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer.

Their characters, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross, respectively were so popular that they all captured that lightning in a bottle that made them a part of pop culture history.

Fast forward and the ensemble cast of Sami Griffith, Tyler Fromson, Maggie McMeans, Madison Fuller, Domenic Servidio, and Aaron C. Rutherford is hoping to bring their own kind of magic to the legendary show with the Los Angeles premiere of Friends! The Musical Parody, set to open July 17, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

The show good-naturedly pokes fun at TV’s Friends, celebrating the adventures of the 20-something friends as they navigate the pitfalls of work, life, and love.   

It takes place during a typical day at Central Perk, apparently New York’s only coffee shop when low and behold, an unexpected runaway bride enters the picture and kicks the whole gang out of second gear! The new musical, recommended for mature audiences, recreates favorite moments from all 10 years of Friends through an uncensored, fast-paced, music-filled romp.

The show has had a successful yearlong North American national tour and was originally produced in New York City by Lynn Shore Entertainment, Theater Mogul and McSmith Family Entertainment.

To find out just how much fun this cast is having touring I recently caught up with Aaron C. Rutherford (ARC), who plays Chandler Bing.

Rutherford, a New York City-based actor, director, and singer is making his national tour debut with Friends! The Musical Parody.

A graduate of Western Michigan University’s BFA Musical Theatre program, some of Rutherford’s recent credits include Dracula: Finding of a Shadow (Dracula), Twelfth Night (Fabian), Guys & Dolls (Benny), and The Witches of Eastwick (Clyde).  He is also the founding artistic director of The Pop-Up Shakespeare Project, for which he directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

  

Aaron C. Rutherford

DD:  Tell me about the show.

ACR: The show is a very loving lampoon of all 10 episodes of Friends. We poke fun of them. It’s not always the nicest, but we do it with a lot of love. We all love the show. We get the whole plot of the 10 seasons into a two-hour fun spoof.

  

DD:  Just how much fun are you having? Is touring what you thought it would be?

ACR:  Yes and no. I’m a pretty recent graduate of Western. It was two Decembers ago. I lived in New York a year. This tour is great. You get the foundations of your career. I get to see cool places. It’s just like any other lifestyle. It’s so much fun. It’s a blast.  We’re just like the Friends, friends. We all

get along. I was a replacement for another actor. They all welcomed me with open arms.

DD: Have any original Friends cast members seen the show?

ACR: No they haven’t if they have, they’ve been very discreet about it.  In February, we were at the Broadway Playhouse, located across the street from David Schwimmer’s theater. We all wondered if he would pop in. If he did, it was very discreet.

  

DD: What would you say to Matthew Perry if he came to see the show?

ACR:  Thank you and I’m sorry. We poke a lot of fun at him. Matthew Perry’s addiction was so much in the public eye, it’s hard not to make reference to it. I’d say, thank you for such a well-rounded character.

DD: How did you make Chandler your own?

ACR:  When we first started rehearsal we did an exercise. We watched the show and did physical quirks. We then interjected our own.  I gotta say, Chandler was the least idiosyncratic of everyone. I had fun taking his quirks and making them funny. He had quirky hand gestures and facial gestures. I had a lot of fun. His sarcasm and quirky body movements – I had to do them large enough to make sure the people in the back of the theatre could see it. The show makes slight of the fact that when he makes jokes, none of the other members laugh at it.

DD:  Did you audition for Chandler or did you audition for another role and they cast you as Chandler?

ACR: I auditioned for Chandler. I’m actually more of a Phoebe but that wasn’t going to happen. That’s because I’m a bit of a hippie. Maybe next year.  I probably could do Schwimmer if I tried, but I’m the most like Chandler.

The cast of Friends! The Musical Parody

DD:   What do you like/dislike about your character?

ACR:  Without giving too much away, there were a  lot of guest stars who made their way onto the show. I enjoy the fact that my character is on a nonstop marathon. I get so smutty because it’s a nonstop show for me. I also like his sense of humor and wit.

DD: Talk about your favorite Friends episode.

ACR:  Right now I’m a big fan of the episode where Christina Applegate comes on as Rachel’s sister. She kept calling Phoebe another name. I also like the blackout episode where Chandler is stuck in an ATM vestibule. He can’t get out. He’s there with a supermodel but can’t phone anyone to tell them because the phones don’t work.

DD:  Do you have any friends like in the show –  who can walk in and out of your apartment at any time?

ACR: Ya know, I’m in New York. I’m in Brooklyn. My door is a little more locked than theirs was on the show. I have two great roommates. We pop into each other’s room all the time. That's about as close as I get to that.

DD: Now that you’ve experienced Friends, do you understand the hype around the show?

ACR: Absolutely. No, and yes. Every single day there is always something in the news. It’s been fifteen years since it ended. There is so much nostalgia around it. I was a kid who grew up watching it. This show was a global phenomenon.

DD:  Where has the tour taken you?

ACR: Oh, my, let me think. We’ve been to Detroit, Chicago, West Palm Beach, Nashville, Cleveland, Seattle, and Phoenix. We’ll be ending soon. This Southern California run is an extension. It wasn’t originally one of the cities, but there was some interest in us coming there.

DD: What is easier for you  - comedy or drama, and why?

ACR:  For me it’s comedy. Comedy is just drama sped up and slowed down in many ways.  Comedy just makes sense to me. That doesn’t mean for any employers reading this that I’m not available to do drama.

DD:    Why did you decide to be an actor?

ACR:  I played the Wicked Witch of the West in second grade. I told my mom this is what I want to do. As a kid, it was kind of the first thing I knew I wanted to be. My parents and teacher would ask me what I wanted to be. I said, everything. I wanted to be the owner of a restaurant, a chef, a firefighter, a comedian, and a cartoonist. Then I said, wait a minute, there is something that allows me to be everything – an actor.

Friends! The Musical Parody, Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City; 8 p.m., Tues-Fri.; 2 and 8 p.m. Sat.; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sun. through August 4, 2019; 213 628-2772.