Review by Giddy Pillai
You know them, you love them, you’ve pelvic thrusted with them…and now it’s time for one last dance with The Fuccbois. Brendan, Brandon, Tyler and Also Brendan have sold more tickets, slid into more DMs and broken more hearts than anyone. But the time has come to hang up their backwards baseball caps, so they’re bringing their reddest flags, their best blue steel stares and their longsuffering tour manager Micaela along for their farewell tour. Next stop: Sydney’s smallest stadium, tucked away in the basement of the iconic Old Fitzroy Hotel.
Fuccbois: Live in Concert is the brainchild of comedy powerhouse Bridie Connell: a real-time concert straight out of your teenage dreams (where things, of course, go horribly awry). It’s an energetic, laugh-out-loud hour of power: 50% whip-smart satirical take on toxic masculinity, 50% loving homage to Y2K boybands, and 100% straight up bop. Connell is right up there with the very best musical comedy writers. Fuccbois’ lyrical punchlines come thick and fast (more than once I choke down a laugh simply because I don’t want to miss a single line), and the music is a flawless pastiche of early 2000s pop.
Connell, who plays Brandon, is joined on stage by an impeccable cast: Gabbi Bolt (Brendan), Megan Walshe (Tyler), Clara Harrison (Also Brendan) and Orya Golgowsky (Micaela). Across the board the comic timing is masterful, the harmonies are glorious, the dance moves are on-point and the energy is magnetic. Staging this show with an entirely female and non-binary cast was a great call: it gives the actors the freedom to channel the douchiest Fuccboi vibes they can muster up, while making it crystal clear that their tongues are firmly in cheek. This helps ensure that the audience experience is joyful from start to end, without any risk of it tipping over into discomfort.
It’s no easy feat to create the feeling of an ego-powered stadium concert falling apart in real time in a black box theatre, but clever directorial choices from Jessica Fallico make Fuccbois a very immersive experience. Jamie Winbank’s phenomenal choreography and Tim Hope’s stunning lighting design help immensely, and Lily Moody’s costumes are replete with details that will conjure up instant nostalgia for nineties and noughties kids. The skill and versatility that the cast bring to the stage ties it all together. Bolt, Connell, Harrison and Walshe have the acting chops to draw out the subtle dynamics in the show with clarity – at any time you can tell precisely what every character is thinking, and how they feel about everyone else on stage. They also have the vocal skill and sheer star quality to make you feel like you’re genuinely in the bleachers with your besties, watching your favourite band kill it up on stage. Golgowsky brings a thoroughly relatable groundedness which makes Micaela simply feel real, and which contrasts beautifully with the larger than life caricatures of the Fuccbois. It really feels like the whole team has had a lot of fun with this show, and it makes for an absolutely joyful audience experience.
If you’ve ever – ironically or unironically – sung your heart out to the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC or One Direction, you will love this show. If you’re a Fuccboi-magnet in recovery, or even a Fuccboi in remission, you will love this show. If you prefer to take your gaslighting in the form of a sea shanty with four-part harmonies, you’ll love this show. If you’ve ever been blessed with a ‘u up?’ text at 2am, you will love this show. And if you’ve lived a blissfully Fuccboi-free life? I reckon you’ll love this show anyway. It’s bloody great.
Image Supplied
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