In November, a small Canadian series about two rival pro hockey players who, in secrecy, fall in love, took over TV screens, late-night talk shows and every corner of social media.
It didn’t take long for the composer and playwright Dylan MarcAurele to start drafting his script for “Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody.” The show tells a similar story about Shane (Jimin Moon) and Ilya (Jay Armstrong Johnson) but through the lens of “the Susans,” a gaggle of wine-drunk moms who wait until their husbands and children are asleep to enjoy the cozy, horny world of hockey players. The women act as narrators in MarcAurele’s show, tipsily recapping plot points, but not always accurately, which is where the parody comes in.
The show, which started as a one-night concert reading, has been extended through November in New York and has spawned additional productions in Canada and Britain (including appearances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe).
“We were just going to put out two concerts, and that was it,” Alan Kliffer, the show’s director and producer, said in an interview. “But the two concerts sold out in 48 hours.”
The production is housed on the sixth floor of the Culture Club, formerly the McKittrick Hotel, where “Sleep No More” ran for nearly 14 years. Kliffer, a self-proclaimed “Sleep” superfan, noted that the space makes the show feel like an entire experience, with a concession stand selling Kip’s Blue Moon Over Brooklyn smoothie, Canada Dry ginger ale and other goodies that wink at the TV show’s fan base.
Plus, Johnson said, “You know this place is haunted for sure.”
From backstage, Johnson, MarcAurele and Moon (performing their last show this week, to be replaced by Aaron Alcaraz) discussed the fine line of parodying a beloved show and nailing a Russian accent. Below are edited excerpts.
Dylan, how did you decide to turn the TV series into a musical parody?
DYLAN MARCAURELE I loved the show very quickly, and so I started to just jot down little notes about things that stood out to me, things that are very moving or are a bit like, “huh, why’d they do that?” [It was] the only thing that I would refer back to so that I didn’t get too deep into the show itself and accidentally do an adaptation instead of a parody.
JIMIN MOON I think the framing device that you created with the Susans is brilliant.
What was the casting process like?
JAY ARMSTRONG JOHNSON Alan Kliffer, our director and producer, slid into my DMs and asked me if I’d be interested. I said yes before even reading this brilliant script or hearing these brilliant tunes.
MOON Zach Piser, who’s a genius, was Shane in the concert readings, and now he’s doing “Maybe Happy Ending,” so y’all needed an Asian.
Did you worry about offending someone who really loves the series?
MARCAURELE It all really came out of a place of joy. The biggest swings are the departures from the material. I will say that, like, the hardest song to write was the final song, “I Can Host,” because I have nothing to make fun of. That moment [when Ilya goes to Shane’s cottage] was perfect.
Do you feel pressure stepping into the roles of Ilya and Shane?
JOHNSON I could feel it from the jump when they first announced us in this on the internet. Just to see the discourse from the world at large about “how dare you take this perfect piece of art and make fun of it.” Wait! wait! wait! This is a love letter to a love story!
MOON You’re not supposed to read the comments, but someone commented, “It looks like they took Connor [Storrie] and Hudson [Williams]’s faces and ran over them with a truck.” It was, like, “That was a new headshot!”
Storrie got a lot of praise for his Russian accent —
JOHNSON Heard about that.
How did you prep?
JOHNSON I walked into the concert reading sounding like I was from Transylvania because I was like, “It’s a parody, right?” And this team reeled me in very quickly. My friend Christopher Gurr, who’s a Broadway actor and a really great dialect coach, and I had a few sessions to make sure I got it to a place that feels real, and not a caricature of itself.
Dylan, what has it been like for the show to expand to Canada and Britain?
MARCAURELE I thought this was going to be a one-night-only concert, and to see it grow to three and counting different productions is insane. It was fun coming up with the different little adjustments for the London and Edinburgh productions. The associate director over there was like, “OK, we don’t really have Shutterfly, but we have this little store called Snappy Snap.”
Do any of you care about hockey?
MARCAURELE I will say it’s the only sport that I have ever enjoyed myself in the audience of.
MOON The audience?
JOHNSON What do you call it? The crowd? The stands?
MARCAURELE Well, anyway, I remember it being, like, fun and zippy.
