Playing at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre until December 23, Sydney’s Darling Quarter Theatre until December 23 and Brisbane’s Royal ICC Theatre until December 21.
Tickets and more information at loveactuallymusicalparody.com
Perfectly timed for the festive season, this raucous, riotous musical parody ruthlessly skewers the iconic 2003 rom com Love Actually, which has undeniably status in 2025 as a beloved Christmas classic, but has also rightfully copped its fair share of criticism since release given some of the film’s more questionable elements.
So this means there is plenty of material for the team behind this parody to play with, and a game cast elevates the material on the page with their boundless enthusiasm and charisma.
In a unique move, the show is currently running in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane at the same time, with three different casts, playing until December 23 in Sydney and Melbourne and December 21 in Brisbane. I had the pleasure of seeing the Melbourne production of the show, but it would certainly be interesting to now see the other two productions to compare them all.
Right from the word go when we’re introduced to Prime Minister Hugh Grant (Ian Andrew) we know we’re in for a very meta experience in which the Love Actually characters are referred to by the actor who is playing them (Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth etc.) rather than their character names in the film. That is unless the actor is not a household name, so in that case they’re just referred to as “That guy from The Walking Dead”.
If you’ve seen a musical parody show before (Friends and Game of Thrones are two examples that have done the rounds recently), you know they’re always a little bit looser and more chaotic than a regular musical, and can veer off in all sorts of insane directions. Love Actually – The Musical Parody is no different, with some absurd deviations from the source material.
The songs are bright, zippy and never outstay their welcome, and the whole production has the feel of a pantomime in the best possible way. An adults-only pantomime that is, but a panto all the same. There’s plenty of audience interaction and a huge selection of musical numbers, but they’re often quite brief and are broken up by rapid-fire skits which recreate the most iconic moments from the film.
Getting some of the biggest laughs is the wonderful Jeremy Harland who does a hilarious take-off of Alan Rickman in full Severus Snape mode, leading to more Harry Potter in-jokes than I was expecting in a Love Actually parody.
But perhaps the biggest laughs were reserved for Belinda Jenkin’s merciless send-up of Keira Knightley which is fairly brutal in its depiction of the actress, but undeniably hilarious. Despite this, the show never gets too mean-spirited or veers into uncomfortably dark material, and remains a good natured experience throughout.
You might be surprised at just how bawdy and risque the show gets, given the movie is a fairly tame, family-friendly experience for the most part. But this stage parody goes much further with the raunchy humour, and the audience seemed to lap up the rudest jokes with glee.
But there’s also lots of subtle humour, such as the running gag of Laura Linney lamenting the uselessness of her character and questioning what she is even doing in the movie. The writers even find time to incorporate a Hamilton parody, which not surprisingly brought the house down.
The costuming is first rate, with lots of screen-accurate replicas of what we saw the characters wearing in the film, which helps to instantly connect us to which character we’re seeing.
Mitchell Groves, Sophie Loughran and Massimo Zuccara round out the cast, and each get their moments to shine, with Groves doing a memorable bit as Mr. Bean. The cast’s energy and commitment to even the corniest of jokes is admirable, and they do not miss a beat which is impressive given the amount of quick costume changes the show utilizes. With every actor playing multiple roles, it certainly doesn’t look like it is an easy show to perform but this extremely talented cast makes it look effortless.
True to their word in the advertising, Love Actually – The Musical Parody is a show that will please both those who love and hate the movie. As someone who actively dislikes the film, I absolutely loved the show, as it pokes fun at many of the issues I have with the source material. But on the flip side, if you love the film, it’s still an incredibly affectionate recreation of the film’s iconic moments, multiple plotlines and myriad of characters.
4/5 Stars
TINSEL and TAP SHOES 