MARVELous - The Massive Marvel Parody

A fun piece of adult theatre awaits you at the Chatswood Concourse, as a cleverly created Marvel parody lands with spectacular delivery.

It's definitely risqué, with lots of raunchy dancing. Some of the performers dance in revealing costumes, but nothing that could cause a wardrobe malfunction. Despite that, there's an extremely clever routine in Act 2 where the performers - though nude - do a hilarious job in performing in such a way that we only see their derrieres.

There's no plot as such: it's very much a set of standalone scenes where the performers perform in costume and character. 

We open with a funny dance routine with Captain America, with his movie theme song re-written to riff on the "America's Ass" joke from Avengers: Endgame (he has the physique and charm to match, and from my seat looked like a young John Cena). Many great scenes follow: Lady Thor and Mjolnir; Doctor Strange with a magician's stage trick (just when we think we've seen the old "lady disappearing in a box" routine, Doc Strange surprises us); Fat Thor pole dancing (the song used for this is a brilliant choice); the three Spider-Mans (with every other Spider-person variation); a scene with the Scarlet Witch that was not only breathtaking in its execution but also emotionally moving, and a funny routine that puts an end to all that fan speculation about just how close Captain America and Bucky Barnes were as "best friends". These are only some of the entertaining set pieces to savour. The show careens from shlocky gross-out gore (how Iron Man's parents met their end) to the more serious (Black Widow's Russian Ballet training), and I felt adding these different styles gave the show some nuance and balance from the naughty hijinks on display. Some of the raunch may not be to everyone's liking, e.g. at interval I overheard people commenting that they didn't want to see characters masturbating the handle of Thor's hammer. Well, this show IS meant to be raunchy and risqué.  

Conceptually the show holds together well. It helps that in between the routines we have Deadpool addressing the audience with some of his typical foul-mouthed, sexed up banter. In this regard the actor playing Deadpool does it so well I expected Ryan Reynolds to be taking the bow. Don't worry: he gets a chance to show us what he's made of, burnt flesh and all. 

The stunt work, athleticism, flying high wire stunts, and pole dancing are simply amazing. The film actors had stunt doubles, wire hoists, and CGI to make them look good on film; but this cast is doing the same thing and more, but live. And all while singing and dancing.

The show uses established songs but with cleverly re-written lyrics to both parody and reflect on each specific hero's situation. Furthermore, the type of song chosen actually had a thematic connection to each of the heroes' character arcs in the movies (e.g. Scarlett Witch singing “Titanium”).

On opening night there were some problems with sound balance, so I couldn't hear all that was being sung. However, what I DID hear was witty and hit the mark - even when it waded into innuendo and entendre. What little dialogue that was spoken was very funny (my favourite was the banter with the SpiderMen, and Deadpool's patter).

My biggest disappointment was that there was no programme available to let us know who was doing what and how it all came to be. Even the website wasn't much help. The creatives and cast deserve congratulation.

There were also some issues with set changes in Act 1 that killed the pace and energy (in this regard Act 2 felt tighter and flowed better). The set is indeed spectacular, retaining a simplicity that allows the cast to shine while being impressive in its own right. However, I wondered if it was necessary to move the set for every routine in Act 1, especially if doing so caused lapses in pace and energy.

From a non-fan's perspective I'd say the clever material won't land if you're not familiar with the movies (the focus is on pre-Endgame material) e.g. you need to know what happens to the Scarlet Witch in the movies and TV show to understand why her singing “Titanium” is emotionally moving, and why it's Doc Strange that does her backing vocal. And as my Plus One asked, "why is Thor fat?", and often elsewhere, "why are the audience laughing at this?"

Despite this, there's enough wow factor in the stunts and performances to keep you entertained, even if you're not an MCU aficionado.

The season will be over quicker than Thanos can snap his fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet. Speaking of which, I was surprised said gauntlet didn’t \make an appearance: I could imagine the MCU characters foisting it on Deadpool.

Clever, raunchy, spectacular fun. 

Peter Novakovich

Photographer: Ben Dingley