For a show like MARVELous: A Risqué Parody, the title really does most of the heavy lifting in that you know exactly what you are walking into. In no way is this subtle theatre. And honestly? Thank God for that.
It’s superheroes and sex jokes thrown into a latex-clad bender along with pop songs and pop culture references you honestly hadn’t thought about in years. The formula is knowingly stupid, proudly filthy, and designed for audiences who like their fandom with a side of burlesque and absolutely no dignity.
This latest run at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane arrives with a bit of history behind it. MARVELous has toured Australia before in bigger, flashier forms, and its reputation has largely been built on that mix of comic book recognition, cheeky camp and adults-only spectacle.
Previous coverage on The Scoop has touched on that same appeal. It is easy to see why the show has travelled well. Marvel characters already live in such an exaggerated world that parody feels like a natural extension.
The best versions of this kind of production know they do not need to reinvent the wheel. They just need to throw Deadpool, Captain America, Loki, and others into increasingly stupid situations and trust the audience to come along for the ride.
While its namesake hints at only being a Marvel parody, in actuality, it’s so much more. There are swings at Star Wars. A delightful nod to The Simpsons with Mr Plow. And even an Austin Powers runaway steamroller gag thrown into the mix. It turns the whole night into a sort of late-night pop culture fever dream, which is really where the material is at its strongest.
It’s my gut instinct that creator and director, Samwise Holmes, spent his early adulthood with a man-crush on Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. And just like the rest of us, thought to himself, “I wanna be like that guy!”
Unlike the rest of us, though, he actually got to realise his dream. His Deadpool is confident, funny, and vocally very close to Reynolds in a way that instantly helps sell the character. He captures that smug, overcaffeinated rhythm that makes Deadpool such an easy crowd favourite in a beautifully chaotic and inappropriate way.
In a similar fashion, as Loki, Natasha O’Hehir’s reimagining into an Elphaba-style Wicked gag is the exact sort of unhinged nonsense this show needs. The rewritten Defying Gravity lyrics are both silly and sharp in equal measure.
Then there is HamilPool, which imagines Deadpool dropped into Hamilton. It is so naturally funny that it almost feels unfair not to give it more time. By the end, I had fully convinced myself Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ryan Reynolds need to stop whatever they are doing and make that happen properly.
And yes, the loudest reaction of the night probably belonged to the Dirty Dancing homage featuring Bucky (Logan Grant) and Captain America (Trent Owers), with the added detail of…their own extra details (if you catch my drift). Highbrow? Not remotely. Effective? Very much so.
If there is one thing I can say most confidently about MARVELous, it’s that it never lacks for ideas. The puns are just as frequent as a Deadpool F-bomb. The references hit you right in the nostalgia. And there is a solid understanding of how to hype up an audience that wants to laugh first and ask questions later.
Some of the routines are genuinely fun, and there are enough good comic instincts throughout to remind you why the show has had a life beyond a one-off novelty run.
This version, though, does feel like a leaner reworking of the production that previously toured Australia. Some of the larger visual elements I read about from my colleagues, which helped give it scale, appear to have been trimmed back.
There is no big screen this time, no construction-style scaffolding looming over the action, and the character spread feels smaller too (no Dr Strange or Scarlet Witch). That does change the overall feel a bit. Where earlier versions sounded built around excess, this feels more like a stripped-back club-style take on the material.
There were also a few technical hiccups on the preview night. Lighting often felt less designed to shape the action and more designed to attack the audience directly, which got a bit much.
Audio cues were occasionally missed, microphones were not always reliable, and a few costume elements looked like they were having a long evening themselves. The advertised jaw-dropping stunts were also absent, save for a death drop or two.
Still, the crowd had plenty to laugh at, and there is something to be said for a show that never really stops throwing jokes at the wall. Even when it’s messy, it stays energetic.
By the final number, when all three Spider-Men ended up scrambling for handheld microphones after their ear-hook mics fell off, the whole thing had become a bit unintentionally symbolic. Crackling sound, frantic recovery, everyone trying to push through to the finish.
In a strange way, that ending captured MARVELous: A Risqué Parody perfectly. It’s chaotic, cheeky, endlessly clever, and more than a little rough around the edges.
As Deadpool would know, not every superhero landing sticks. But there is still enough mischief, commitment and sheer silliness here to remind you why this show has managed to keep touring in the first place.
MARVELous: A Risqué Parody runs to 4 April at Twelfth Night Theatre, 4 Cintra Road Bowen Hills Qld 4006.
Tickets are available here.
Website: https://marveloustheshow.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/marveloustheshow/
Photo credits: Ben Dingley
