[Event Review] Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody (2023)

For any horror fan, a musical parody of the Saw franchise would be a treat. But a very campy, very queer musical reimagining of the plot? Now that's a little piece of heaven.

This October, Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody opens at New York City's AMT Theater. At a recent press screening, the excitement in the room – from the staff working at the event to the cast to the audience members – added extra joy to the event. Behind the scenes, Stephanie Rosenberg is the director and choreographer behind the bawdy interpretation, and Cooper Jordan is the creator and lead producer.

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The musical is an energetic retelling of the original film in the franchise, Saw, which was released in 2004. Adam (a photographer) and Lawrence (an oncologist) wake up chained to the walls of a huge, creepy bathroom, and slowly realize they're pawns in the Jigsaw Killer's murderous game. In the film, the two forge an uneasy alliance as they fight for their lives. In the musical, there's a twist: Adam and Lawrence are both queer men, who spend the majority of their time lasciviously admiring each other and fixated on the possibility of a hookup. 

The parody isn't mocking or cruel – it pays a humorous tribute to the original material, while also cleverly pointing out the bizarre actions of the characters from the film. After Lawrence bats his eyes and asks Adam to look through the excrement-filled toilet for a clue, Adam wonders aloud why they didn't just start off with the markedly less filthy toilet tank – something more than one Saw fan has wondered throughout the years!

Props are also used in a devastatingly funny way. In this same scene, Adam makes a show of digging through the toilet, seductively throwing his body into the feat, and making eyes at a way-too-excited Lawrence. Adam cries out, "I'm f**king elbow deep in shit!" Lawrence replies by singing, "You're elbow deep in meeeeee." Instead of being a stressful fight for survival, this version of Saw is a very horny queer romance, where Adam and Lawrence turn everything from a toilet bowl's contents to a bloody gunshot wound to something sexual.

Three actors cover multiple roles throughout the night, and there's singing, dancing (including Lawrence's raucous grind with a blowup doll) and even puppeteering involved. The cast rotates, and on the night I attended, Gabrielle Goodman was phenomenal as Jigsaw. Sheathed in a black cloak and animating a Jigsaw puppet, her voice went from a beautiful trill to a scratchier Jigsaw-like growl at the drop of a hat.

The lyrics in Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody were also a perfect blend of moving the plot along and poking fun at the absurdity of the horror. As Jigsaw sings to a frightened (but dancing) Adam and Lawrence near the start of the musical:

"If you don't f**king die

you'll be glad you're alive,

though if you die, I'll make it painful...

To live the life you love, 

all you have to do is murder your friend, 

and the torture will end!"

Danny Durr as Lawrence and James Lynch as Adam were also fantastic in their roles, as they gave their all to the story of these two randy would-be lovers trapped in Jigsaw's twisted game. Their dedication to their roles and willingness to go from saucy to sweet in their flirtation made them a perfect duo. 

While the characters' ultimate fate might be a mystery, the triumph of Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody is a certainty. The musical managed to nod to the source material, while also letting a hilarious queer reframing of the story emerge as something special for Saw (and musical theater) fans.

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