{"id":247232,"date":"2026-05-29T01:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247232\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:32:24","slug":"my-starring-role-in-heated-rivalry-for-one-night-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247232\/","title":{"rendered":"My Starring Role in \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 \u2014 for One Night Only"},"content":{"rendered":"

The house lights came up suddenly, and the performer Ryann Redmond announced, \u201cTonight, the role of Scott Hunter will be played \u2026 by one of you.\u201d A chorus of oohs and ahhs rippled through the audience at \u201cHeated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody,\u201d<\/a> which opened on Tuesday at the Culture Club in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

This cheerfully bare-bones, affectionately barbed parody of the hit TV show<\/a> mainly skewers the secret romance between two professional hockey players, the Canadian Shane Hollander (Jimin Moon) and the Russian Ilya Rozanov (Jay Armstrong Johnson). The frisson of excitement pulsing through the theater a week ago halfway through the parody was in part an appreciation that the TV show\u2019s popular secondary love story \u2014 between the hockey hunk Hunter and his smoothie-barista lover, Kip (Ryan Duncan) \u2014 would also feature in the musical.<\/p>\n

When Redmond\u2019s eyes fixed on me \u2014 \u201cYes, you. Come on up\u201d \u2014 my initial response was puzzlement. Critics don\u2019t tend to get picked. But I had no notebook-in-lap, and I discovered later, the actors didn\u2019t know where reviewers were seated. As the audience whooped, Redmond guided me backstage.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollow the script, it\u2019s only a few lines,\u201d she said, dressed as one of the show\u2019s Susans, character stand-ins for the female fan base of \u201cHeated Rivalry.\u201d<\/a> More cheers greeted my reappearance onstage. Any mortification or nerves vanished, evaporated, pfft, perhaps because I wanted to meet the room\u2019s merry mood. Or maybe it was an inner ham waiting to be liberated; my dream has been a role \u2014 and fade-out shot \u2014 in \u201cThe Young and the Restless.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, I watched \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d<\/a> on TV more invested in Scott (Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud<\/a>) and Kip (Robbie G.K.) than Ilya (Connor Storrie) and Shane (Hudson Williams). While both clandestine gay romances feature hot bodies and passionate longing, Scott and Kip (to me) seemed more engaging as characters. Like many viewers, I cheered their exhilarating ice rink moment in Episode 5. That evening onstage, I thought: \u201cIf I\u2019m Scott Hunter for one night only, then, dammit, I\u2019ll be my best Scott Hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something else sharpened my attention. Surveying the script, I saw they weren\u2019t just a \u201cfew lines,\u201d but seven pages. \u201cScott\u201d isn\u2019t a one-and-done character; he\u2019s integral to the show. Volunteer Scott has to commit to his bit.<\/p>\n

In the musical, as on television, Kip\u2019s making smoothies when Scott comes into his cafe workplace for the first time. Recalling how absurdly freighted the lingering looks in \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d<\/a> are, I channeled my extremely buried, inner hockey stud as best I could. \u201cI came here because I was running. You think I get this physique by sitting at home,\u201d I said as my flirtiest Scott. \u201cNo. I chase miles \u2014 breakfast, lunch, and dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience laughed and hollered. I paused and cruised Duncan, remembering how Scott and Kip had locked eyes on TV. \u201cNow what\u2019s a fella like me have to do to get a smoothie around here, pretty-lips?\u201d And then: \u201cHow\u2019s that banana coming along? Daddy\u2019s hungry.\u201d (As for Scott and Kip\u2019s climactic ice-rink kiss, you\u2019ll just have to see for yourselves.)<\/p>\n

After the show, I nervously awaited the reviews in real-time; phew \u2014 on that night, there were universal raves from audience members and some critics I knew. \u201cThe British accent really helps,\u201d one man said. Flatteringly, I was asked if I was an actor or a plant. I floated home on a magic carpet of head-swelling compliments, performer\u2019s buzz and elated shock.<\/p>\n

Two days later, I sought a tougher set of critiques from the director Alan Kliffer and from Dylan MarcAurele, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, as well as Duncan and Redmond. \u201cYou and all our Scotts have been great so far, we haven\u2019t had a bad one yet,\u201d said Kliffer. \u201cI\u2019m touching a piece of wood superstitiously as I say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea for an audience member playing Scott, said MarcAurele, first came from a friend, the dramaturg Rose Oser. \u201cIt made sense given our small cast and wanting a mid-show jolt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kliffer and Redmond scope the audience before and during a performance, looking for a potential Scott, says Redmond, who is giving off \u201cthe right vibes, engaging with the jokes and ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date there haven\u2019t been any female Scotts, and though the script states the audience member should be \u201cideally a cheerful but awkward, straight 55-year-old male\u201d \u2014 which, umm, doesn\u2019t exactly encapsulate me \u2014 the team insists the role is open to all ages, genders and sexualities. Some as-yet-unnamed celebrity cameos are planned. Duncan appeared in the movie \u201cForrest Gump,\u201d<\/a> and would love for Tom Hanks<\/a> to play Scott for one night (he also suggests Lea DeLaria<\/a>). Redmond proposes Mark Ruffalo<\/a> and Bad Bunny<\/a>. All gasped at the idea of Arnaud himself showing up.<\/p>\n

I thanked Duncan for my thrilling turn. He would soon meet that night\u2019s Scott.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were wonderful,\u201d Duncan said, \u201cso whoever they are, they have some very large skates to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung and the Restless\u201d producers, I\u2019m available.<\/p>\n

Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody
Through Sept. 7 at the Culture Club, Manhattan; heatedrivalryparody.com<\/a>. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The house lights came up suddenly, and the performer Ryann Redmond announced, \u201cTonight, the role of Scott Hunter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96626,68717,96622,96623,96624,41120,96625,96627,23680,9,56,63,65,64,2556,905,85499],"class_list":["post-247232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-alan","tag-dylan","tag-heated-rivalry-the-unauthorized-musical-parody-play","tag-jay-armstrong","tag-jimin","tag-johnson","tag-kliffer","tag-marcaurele","tag-moon","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-television","tag-theater","tag-theater-off-broadway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}