Type: Drag King, Boy Band Spoof
If You Liked: SIX the Musical, Beat Boyz: Best House Party Ever
Forget One Direction. Move over Backstreet Boys. Who even is BTS? The hottest boy band group ever in the history of the world is The Fuccbois! After killer sets at Glastonbury, sold out shows at Madison Square Garden, as well as Grammys and accolades galore, Britain’s hottest boy band has landed in the Show Room at Arts Centre Melbourne…only a small leap away from Taylor Swift’s record-breaking turnout at the MCG.
Written by Aria award winning writer Bridie Connell, Fuccbois: Live in Concert feels like the unofficial spirited brother to the smash-pop Queens of SIX. Under the wrangling of their tour director, Mikayla (Orya Golgowsky), The Fuccbois, Brendan, Brandon, Tyler, and Also Brendan (Connell, Vidya Makan, Megan Walshe and Clara Harrison respectively), are back for one last performance (no encores!) as a group before they disband forever – honestly!
Direction by Richard Carroll ensures that the premise of the boy band concert is curated as soon as doors open. Cheering crowds echo throughout the space, while “fan-made” signs showing love and praise for The Fuccbois sit waiting on seats. Meanwhile, Golgowsky welcomes the eagerly waiting crowd interacting with the “fans” and enquiring about their love for the boys.
The dedication to world building is perhaps one of the most fun parts of Fuccbois, and the creatives have gone out of their way to rope in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival crowd. A highlight reel of The Fuccbois’ legacy plays before their grand entrance, with notable faces appearing on screen. From Rove McManus to Channel Nine’s Today Show, and fringe favourite Gabbi Bolt, they each share their adoration of The Fuccbois and heartbreak at their farewell.
The songs too are an absolute thrill, cleverly written for any woman who’s ever crossed paths with a f*ckboy in the wild. Their premises and titles are imbued with gorgeous euphemism and wordplay – in short, they’re pun-tastic. ‘The DM Slide’, ‘Slow Fade’, and ‘Gaslight Shanty’ feature among the hits of The Fuccbois with each of the team’s four drag kings embodying their band member’s skin with elasticity and boundless zest.
Connell’s Brendan sees himself as the leader of the band and the obvious breakout star; think Gary Barlow of Take That but with covers and remixes instead of original ideas. Makan’s thickly Irish-voiced Brandon is seeking a solo tour for his new album’s release, with Makan clearly having an absolute blast in an entirely different space and role for her to play in.
Elsewhere, Walsh’s thick-headed Tyler cycles through celebrity TV shows for an easy paycheck, ostensibly falling in “love” with a new woman in the crowd every 15-20 minutes. All hope for maturity rests on Harrison’s Also Brendan, who soliloquies at random, questioning why he is the way that he is while he harbours a secret desire of an unnamed woman. Can a Fuccboi every truly change?
It can be a bit slow going at times, with the mask of the concert falling off at moments, putting us in danger of removing ourselves from the well-crafted world. So too is the shifting spaces of the behind-the-scenes conversations and the on-stage concert too blurred.
As silly as Fuccbois is, Connell has ensured that this isn’t just a fluff piece for easy laughs. Underneath the drag king impressions of the Ghosts of Boy Bands Past – lip biting, squinting, tongue poking, and sexual innuendos are rife – there’s a much more biting message of infamy akin to the recent Louis Theroux documentary exploring the Manosphere. Much like the Netflix doco does, the show’s climax reveals that underneath the flexing, the grifting, the flirting, the showboating, and the fame, these Fuccbois are really just boys. It’s Golgowsky’s applause-worthy outbreak that – again, similar to the Queens – shatters the Fuccbois’ glass house, as well as our own.
Already proving to be a smash-hit in the Fringe world, Fuccbois: Live in Concert, is an unabashed hour of laughs. With impressions so gloriously articulate and elastic, and songs so damn catchy you’d be forgiven for searching for them on your streaming platform, The Fuccbois are your next ticket big ticket purchase at a stadium (read: small fringe space) near you.
See our other reviews from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in the link below
Tickets and Practical Info for Fuccbois: Live in Concert at MICF 🎟️
Written by Bridie Connell
Directed by Richard Carroll
Starring:
Bridie Connell – Brendan
Vidya Makan – Brandon
Megan Walshe – Tyler
Clara Harrison – Also Brendan
Orya Golgowsky – Mikayla
Show Details
Ticket Prices: $35 – $50
Time: 9.00pm| 8.00pm
Venue: Arts Centre Melbourne – The Show Room
Duration : 60 minutes
Suitable for audiences 15+
