By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 24 October and runs through 1 November 2026 RUNTIME: 70 minutes (no interval)

Heated Rivalry is a Canadian TV show and gay love story set in the unlikely world of ice hockey which was a surprise hit this year and has spawned at least 2 musical parodies of which this is 1.

• Read on for reasons including how this is a lot of bawdy fun and a good representation for fans of the show

Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody arrives in London from Edinburgh and had the immediate advantage over its own rival at The Other Palace recently in that its soundtrack was available on socials.

We listened to it 1st while out running and laughed out loud continuously at the lyrics which will mean so more to you if you’re an actual fan of the show before seeing this.

1 such zinger is from protagonist Shane Hollander’s mother as she mulls what might be the secret he wants to tell her as he desperately tries to during A Heavy Load: ‘I know my son is hiding some deep internal war. There’s a sorrow in his smile and a dildo in his drawer.’

If that’s too much for you, this parody musical that reminds of Titanique which we loathed and Oh, Mary! which we love, may not be the pucking good time you’re looking for.

It’s very sexual early on with Hollander thawing the initially cold Ilya Rozanov in a hotel gym (watch and listen above). Sample lyric: ‘It’s a Friday night and it’s getting hot at the local Marriott … If I come round 9 o’clock, I might open, I might not.’

But what makes source material Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels so successful is that the intimacy drives story and character development with instant sexual gratification maturing into something far deeper including complete submission – and bottoming even – over decades.

What the TV show did so well was its casting of leads Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams who convince both as elite sports stars but also as a believable gay couple.

The off Broadway pairing (pictured above) doesn’t work quite as well but is literally sticks ahead of Joseph Dann as Ilya and Zheng Xi Yong (American Psycho, Almeida) as Shane with the latter singing brilliantly but looking far too twinky to convince as an elite sports star.

We had a ticket for rival show Deep-Heat Rivalry at the Other Palace but unfortunately had to miss it although its use of Diana Vickers, Sario Solomon (The Band, Theatre Royal Haymarket) and writer Trevor Ashley (The Producers, Garrick Theatre) appeared to give it an advantage.

Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody is a lot of bawdy fun then and a good representation for fans of the show but could’ve been better.

• Main pictures by via Facebook courtesy Underbelly Boulevard Soho Tickets
• Have you seen a Heated Rivalry show before and what did you think of it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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