Live Performance Review - Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical

Images courtesy of Angel Leggas - 3 fates media.

Once upon a time in Hawkins, Indiana, there lived a people chuffed with cliché. Their lives were a hit and their town never missed, what an unpleasant mess they’ve now found themselves in. Sure, Netflix is just a stone’s throw away, where they spend a million a day. Where the effects are exquisite and the plot’s severity laid bare, but if that doesn’t tickle you and you seek the flair… Come down to The Meat Market, a converted lot with lots of character – well… that’s when they’re not trudging through hell…

Ok, I’ll stop. I can’t rhyme, I’ve never taken lessons. Officers, lock me up and throw away the key because I’m making this all about me when Stranger Sings needs every word it can get to convey its excellence. When I first read about this little stage show I thought it would be a modest affair but once I’d arrived, I found myself apologising to the ticket scanners out front because this thing was packed, and the budget was huge. 

Working with what they’ve got, a lot of the show is made out of around five revolving backdrops on the stage and this creativity propels the show in more ways than one. Whoever’s in charge of choreography and transitioning between scenes they’ve done a wonderful job at keeping it light-hearted. 

Through the entirely funny performance, whenever performers require a prop to suddenly appear or disappear there are white-sheet clad ghosts with the self-awareness of Kanye West creeping in and out of sight. This is funny enough, but their prolonged eye contact with the audience is the real punchline of the gag. And now that we’ve gotten to enjoying the humour in this parody performance, let’s acknowledge that nobody drops the baton for the entire two hours. 

I wasn’t sure exactly how Stranger Sings would be packaged. Would it be a montage of all four seasons, an original story, or something different again? It was delightful to find that the majority of the runtime was dedicated to the highly memorable first season, making a vast majority of its references and punchlines hard to miss. The recaps were hilarious and the foreshadowing to later seasons intentionally on the nose, but what really left an impression was the music itself. 

I’ve seen nary a musical before in-person. Yeah sure, I’ve seen La La Land, but I’m not expecting the Meat Market to reproduce that kind of quality. And yet they almost do. These songs are catchy, overproduced to all high hell, and performed by a troupe of incredibly talented vocalists who I felt honoured to see perform. These are people with big futures near only the beginning of their careers. 

Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical runs November 4th to November 19th at the Meat Market. For tickets and more info, click here.