Thrones! The Musical Parody review cathartic pisstake is much more fun than the finale

Playhouse, Sydney Opera House
Packed with in-jokes and topical gags, the musical – which has been updated continuously since 2015 – takes on new responsibility in the show’s wake

Making conversation before the curtains lift on the sold-out opening night of Thrones! – the Game of Thrones parody musical, which is in Australia following seasons in the US and UK – my seatmate side-eyes me conspiratorially and asks the only question: what did I think of the finale season?

“I felt it … could have benefited from a little more breathing room, story-wise,” I say carefully, though I suspect this won’t be a controversial take. As the show’s second half roasts the final season as if it were a disloyal advisor, the gleeful shrieks of approval from the audience prove me right.

Retaining some level of disappointment with the show’s eighth season has now essentially replaced knowing all the character names (or having a particularly baroque “R+L=J” theory) as the key indicator of true GoT fandom. So this parody musical, which has been touring Fringe festivals and comedy circuits since 2015 – updated with new gags sometimes weekly to bring it up to speed with the show – has taken on a new responsibility.

Director Chris Grace says that as this year’s series was airing, the Thrones! team were writing spec songs and throwing around ideas; the moment the finale aired on 18 May, they dove into three hours of writing, and began rehearsals for the Sydney run the next day.

Beginning as a cheeky tribute, the latest and possibly final incarnation of Thrones! has seen it morph into a retrospective that functions both as catharsis for the fans who saw years of theories and hopes go up in flames this year; and as a sneakily bleak send-up of anyone who got so invested in this absurdly over-resourced telenovela in the first place.

The premise of the musical involves a group of GoT superfans using their recently divorced friend Linda’s place for a surprise finale-viewing party, as she has the biggest TV. She has never actually seen the show, so they offer to re-enact it. “Thank god I brought my box of wigs!” exclaims one.

It starts off broad and more than a little stiff: I sank down in my seat a little at the prospect of sitting through 120 minutes of “Boy, there sure are a lot of murders in this here prestige fantasy program!!!” gags. But Thrones! is at its best when it really leans into the baby-stabbing, sister-fucking, eyeball-exploding, second-grader-ritual-sacrificing surreality, where the cast stare the audience down and dare them not to laugh at a toy foetus being repeatedly knifed as part of a rap number – after all, you watched this stuff for fun when it was being played straight, right?

As the musical numbers explain plot landmarks like the Red Wedding (the aforementioned hip-hop interlude, titled “Stabbin”) or the constant sexual violence (Ramsay and Joffrey in a cane-twirling vaudeville double act), poor, uninitiated Linda repeatedly emerges with her face contorted in horror at their content, asking semi-rhetorically why this is considered fun – a running gag that works for the musical and the series.

And the broad stuff lands well, too: Jordan Stidham proves a bang-on Jon “Snor” Snow accent is never not funny, and reveals of iconic props like Jaime Lannister’s golden hand are greeted with roars of delight.

There are meme-y jokes that may only be funny if you already know about the photo of Sophie Turner Juuling in costume, or about Twitter thirsting conflictedly after the grown-up Robin Arryn the way the pre-teen Robin thirsted after breast milk, or about the two separate instances of non-Westerosi beverage vessels turning up in season eight.

And there is a genuinely affecting Hodor – sorry, Willas – solo song that’s played absolutely straight, as if to remind us that the last of the show’s actual humanity was clawed to death by wights in an act of heroic – but, like literally the entire plot of the show, apparently pre-destined and thus possibly meaningless – self-sacrifice. Eric Michaud crushes everything from this lovely moment to a Hamilton–style “How does a half-man …” Tyrion solo, and is the clear cast MVP, musically.

Less successful is a lot of the topical humour, from a gratingly obvious Trump/Wall runner to some of the attempts to localise winky stuff about real-life monsters – if we’re at the point of making George Pell Jokes, and I’m not sure we are, they need to be cleverer than Joffrey claiming him as a “friend and mentor”, as certain Aussie politicians actually did mere months ago. (I desperately, desperately wish to know how many people appreciated the Engadine Maccas shout-out, though.)

GoT was an increasingly communal experience as its success grew, and the universality of its parting disappointments are the most uniting set of creative choices it has ever given us. There are very few who felt that the previous decade of wild mass guessing, and genuine emotional distress over the fates of their favourite characters, were done justice by the finale.

Thrones! slyly reaches very hard for some greater meaning in the bloodshed and billion-dollar budget, but it’s really just trying to prolong the fun – and if dodgy wigs and rhyme schemes fudged harder than Westerosi travel times sound like fun to you, it leaves the actual finale in the dust.

Thrones! The Musical Parody runs at Sydney Opera House until 30 June

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