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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
