Brooklyn's Hilarious Fast and Furious Musical Parody Delights Audiences

In a darkened Brooklyn theater, a group of actors lined up on stage. More than half were women. A significant number of them were bald.

"The Fast and the Furious: A Musical Parody" is a comedic stage show in Brooklyn blending elements of sketch comedy and fan fiction, inspired by the film series. Created by Brad Silnutzer, Joey Orton, and Petro AP, it humorously explores the franchise with catchy pop songs and campy props.

This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article

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Welcome to the Fate of the Furious, they chorused. We made $2 billion, so lets make a billion more/Welcome to the Fate of the Furious/We do crimes and we solve crimes and we do it all in cars. Yes, we do it all in cars/Its the Fate of the Furious/With Dominic Toretto.

Equal parts sketch comedy, fan fiction, and fever dream, The Fast and the Furious : A Musical Parody is a real production, if a fringe one. The set and props are split between a projected backdrop and cardboard cutoutsgiving everything a delightfully campy low-budget feelbut the music, lyrics, and jokes are anything but.

The cast of The Fast and the Furious: A Musical Parody, including Ebonique, Ben D. Goldberg, Matt OBrien, Joey Orton, Jaela Cheeks-Lomax, Nate Larson, Brad Silnutzer, and Pamela Rose Rodriguez. Photo by Francis Bonn III

This full-length, fully choreographed musical parody is as legit as they come, and its a walking thunderclap of luck when you learn how it all came together.

The Fast Family Takes the Stage

Normally, the show plays in Los Angeles approximately once a month. But at the beginning of May, its cast and crew were able to pull off three evening shows at The Bell House performance venue in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn.

We sat in the back because this offered the fullest view of both the stage and the audience. How would a musical parody of the biggest car-related film franchise on Earth be received by people living in New York, a city that hates cars?

The stage at Brooklyns The Bell House. Photo by Kristen Lee

We neednt have wondered; the audience understood the assignment. Two men stood chatting at the bar, one wearing a 2 Fast 2 Furious T-shirt and the other a Corona shirt. Another man sporting a Fast & Furious 6 shirt walked by, followed by an unrelated group of women all wearing flesh-colored head socks on their headsno doubt a group homage to balding and to Dominic Toretto. The room had excellent energy, buzzing with laughter and high spirits, and was far from the slightly haughty stuffiness of Broadway.

The lights dimmed. We were informed the character portrayed in the movies by Michelle Rodriguez would be played by Leather Jacket, which was literally a leather jacket that would either be held up or worn by different actors. Then the show began.

There isnt a linear narrative structure per se, but the musical picks up with events and characters introduced in The Fate of the Furious (thats the eighth installment for you casuals out there), so youll meet Ludacris, Charlize Theron, Tyrese, The Rock, and Jason Statham. They dont use the character names, by the way, but rather the Hollywood actors instead.

Photo by Francis Bonn III

Curiously, the only character to retain their franchise name is Dominic TorettoHis name is Dominic Toretto/Hes been living in the shadows/As the head of a small street gang/Born into a life of crimewhich adds to the absurdity of it all.

Theres a reenactment of a car leaping across two skyscrapers from Furious 7. Theres a song about the male loneliness epidemic. There are several mentions of Vin Diesels alleged on-set feuding with Dwayne The Rock Johnson over the years. Theres an entire subplot surrounding Doms past cars who, upset with how he treated them, plot revenge.

At one point, this conversation happens:

Youre trying to steal my bomb, Theron says.

I would never do that, Toretto responds. The U.S. government is family.

A genuine laugh-out-loud production, The Fast and Furious: A Musical Parody is tightly written, joyously performed, and musically produced. You do not need to have seen any of the Fast movies to enjoy it. The show more than stands on its own.

Who the Hells Idea Was This Anyway?

The Fast and the Furious musical parody is the brainchild of Los Angelesbased stand-up comic and producer Brad Silnutzer and songwriters and music producers Joey Orton and Petro AP. Silnutzer and Orton met as summer camp counselors while students at the University of Southern California, and Orton and AP had a band together in high school.

To answer your first question, no, this show is in no way associated with the official Fast franchise, nor is it a Universal Pictures property, though Universal is aware of its existence.

Joey Orton, left, and Brad Silnutzer, right. Photo by Francis Bonn III

We got a cease and desist from them in the beginning because we used the official font, Silnutzer said. Later on, he revealed, people from the Universal team came to one of the shows, heckled the actors (Dom wouldnt do that!), and joked to the cast and crew that they werent going to sue them. Yet.

Were well covered under parody law, Silnutzer said. We just have to make clear this isnt a Universal property.

Inspiration first came to Silnutzer and Orton around 2016 or 2017, when Ortons career in writing pop music was hitting a wall. Our first [idea] was, should we do Nicolas Cage and National Treasure where his life gets so bad he has to steal the Declaration of Independence in real life? And then he dies? I don't know, Orton said. We didn't really crack it.

Photo by Francis Bonn III

But as all good ideas do, this one came to Orton in the shower. I started singing the first lyric to the opening number of what became the show, he said. I called Brad [Silnutzer] and was like, I have three seconds of music.

The initial goal for the song was not to write a musical, Silnuzter clarified. It was to make something to put on Snapchat about The Fast and the Furious, but we had such a good time writing that song we got together the next day and wrote a second song.

We made the terrible mistake of writing the second song, Orton said, because when you have one song, thats a thing. But if you have two Vin Dieselrelated songs, you have nothing unless you have an entire musical. They had no choice but to finish it.

As fans of the Fast franchise, both Silnuzter and Orton were extremely inspired by the stunts, especially in the later films. If there was a golden age of Fast and Furious, its five, six, seven, Orton said. I think [Fast Five] is the best one. After I saw Five, I was like, Are all of these movies incredible? Five was so good I became a bit of a Fast and Furious evangelist.

The trio began writing when The Fate of the Furious was the most recently released episode. They had a difficult time choosing where to begin the show because there was so much material, but they landed on the eighth film while still acknowledging events from the previous ones.

But then came the questions. What if the cars are alive? Orton theorized. What would the cars think about all of this? That sent us down a rabbit hole.

When writing the music, Petro APwho serves as the shows music directorsaid he wanted to capture the instant catchiness of the pop songs hes used to writing when working with Enrique Iglesias, One Direction, and Dillon Francis.

Petro AP on guitar. Photo by Matt Misisco

A big thing for me and [Orton] was making sure every song brought in a lot of the pop songwriting mentality, AP said. Choruses that are lyrically catchy, unique but familiar, making sure each song is doing a different thing.

They also wanted to create musical juxtapositions; as a result, the show incorporates both Jason Mrazstyle pop and hair metal anthems.

Once the tracks were written, AP recorded them in his L.A. studio, where, as a one-person band, he played drums, guitar, bass, and piano. All auxiliary instruments such as the flutes and French horn were done via synthesizers.

Then Were Gonna Need a Team

Without any prior theater experience, Silnutzer, Orton, and AP needed a team. Or as Dom would say, a family.

Photo by Francis Bonn III

Looking back, they didnt realize what an undertaking writing and putting on a musical production would be. It was just so much more work than we ever anticipated, Silnutzer said. The props, costumes, music tracks, training everybody. We don't come from theater. Im used to stand-up where I show up to a place with an amp and I start talking.

For AP, challenges came in translating all the desired sound elements to a live medium. During the show, he is on stage, playing the piano and guitar as the sole instrumentalist, while also running tracks of the recorded instruments. He had to decide which moments were worth producing and which should be live.

Sometimes that one simple sound is more powerful in a live space than layering things, because you cant hear as much detail when youre watching live, AP said. In the theater, you lose subtleties and cant hear things that separated, so it needs to be really concise.

Photo by Francis Bonn III

Silnutzer and Orton had no money for props, so they asked another friend, Andrea Aidekman Gross, to help build them as cheaply as possible. As the shows art director, co-producer, and co-executive director, Gross had done set design and decoration for film and TV before but hadnt done theater in forever.

My initial ideawhich we still dowas to use cardboard cars and make it as much like a high school production as possible, Gross said. Then we can do almost anything at any scale. Even if it looks dinky, it fits in with the aesthetic.

Transferring the films over-the-top stunts to stage meant Gross got to use a ton of bright colors and glitter. You cant do a parody of them without addressing [the stunts], she said. Its like a feast for the eyes.

Photo by Francis Bonn III

Casting happened before theyd even finished writing the show. We just put an open call online, Silnuzter said. We got a bunch of psychos but also some amazing people.

Then theres Lili Eve Kaytmaz, the shows key makeup artist and resident bald-cap genius. We had only one question for her: Why is everyone bald?

Because the Fast & Furious apparently loves bald people, Kaytmaz said.

The balding process. Photo by Kristen Lee

The show has more than a couple of male roles portrayed by female actors, so Kaytmazs job is to make them all into Tyrese, The Rock, and Jason Statham. The two- to three-hour process involves a hair wrap, cutting and melting on the vinyl bald cap, applying three or four layers of skin-colored paint, and padding realistic textures and blemishes with more paint and sponges. Kaytmaz has it down to a science.

Youd think an undertaking such as this would have happened over the course of a few years. But it didnt. It was very fast. We did it in seven months, Orton said. Our first test audience was a sold-out show at the Dynasty Typewriter theater in Los Angeles [in June 2019].

We didnt know any better, Silnutzer said. You set a date. You start selling tickets. We had to finish.

Lili Eve Kaytmaz applying a bald cap before the show. Photo by Francis Bonn III

Luck is something every single crew member said was on their side. Everyone they hired was either a friend or a friend of a friend. Everyone just happened to be excellent at what they do. For a dramatic stage production, things are surprisingly drama-free backstage.

With passion projects, you usually think of deep, intense art, director Michael Klein, another USC classmate, said. But this is fun. This is our heart and soul because our hearts and souls are all about having fun.

Since the first show, there have been a few rewrites to account for new plot developments. Feedback is always welcome, as are new jokes, so the shows M.O. is generally fast and loose. Its messy because we rehearse once and then send it because our people are all busy, Silnutzer said.

The crew of The Fast and the Furious: A Musical Parody, including Andrea Aidekman Gross, Michael Klein, and Lili Eve Kaytmaz. Photo by Matt Misisco

Inadvertently, in making a show about family, the show became a family in itself. It is a lot like the Fast crew, Silnutzer said. We have a ragtag group of people involved for which this was scratching a particular creative itch. I needed a break from just doing stand-up and producing reality TV, something pure, fun, and non-cynical. I think our castcomedians, singers, and one model who sings sometimesneeded it at the time, too. We got so lucky that everyone was really great and wanted to be involved something different.

The audience, too, responded in kind: Silnutzer and Orton said theyve had people come more than 10 times.

And the dream? To keep the production running forever, maybe find a way to run it in New York like a real show does, Silnutzer said. Or go on tour.

So who knows? Maybe one day, if youre very, very lucky, The Fast and the Furious : A Musical Parody will bring its family to a stage near you.

Additional photography by Francis Bonn III and Matt Misisco