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When writer-composer Dylan MarcAurele pressed play on the first episode of the hit Canadian TV show Heated Rivalry, he binged the entire series in one sitting.
He scribbled down his favourite moments from the queer hockey romance, including the bike scene, where a gym workout morphs into a charged, intimate moment between star-crossed hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov played by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.
Twenty minutes in, MarcAurele asked himself a simple question: “What if this were a musical?”
The answer arrived fast and loud: Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody.
MarcAurele, who has previously written musical parodies of the horror film M3gan and episodes of The Real Housewives, wrote the play in a matter of weeks.
What began as a concentrated burst of songwriting and note-taking became two sold-out concert readings, which then raced to an off-Broadway run with previews starting May 12 in New York.
The new musical parody is the latest spark in the global Heated Rivalry cultural phenomenon: a bestselling book by Canadian author Rachel Reid adapted into a hit TV series that has inspired fan fiction, celebrity endorsements and a voracious fandom hungry for more content.
A ‘love letter’ to the series
With the second season of the TV series slated to air in April 2027, the musical parody is set to open on May 26, just as audiences are craving more of Heated Rivalry’s queer joy. The musical’s creative team sees it as a communal, playful way to keep the characters alive until then.
MarcAurele describes the piece as a comedic mash-up grounded in queer pop-culture fandom, nodding to sweeping showtunes in Anastasia and Chess while embracing cheeky, campy numbers that blend ballet‑inspired hockey choreography with High School Musical energy.
During the writing process, he wanted to amplify the camp to raise the stakes, but keep the characters’ emotions sincere and give the piece a nostalgic, reunion‑style feel he felt fans would enjoy.
Canadian director‑producer Alan Kliffer calls the play a “love letter” to the series and describes the lightning‑fast two‑month leap from readings to full production not as a challenge, but as a “happy accident” that resulted from the show’s cultural momentum.
Alan Kliffer, the director and producer of Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, describes the journey to getting the production ready for off‑Broadway, and reflects on his lifelong love of comedy cultivated while growing up in Winnipeg.
Rachel Ho, a Toronto-based film critic, writer and the current film editor at Exclaim! Magazine, agrees that speed was essential. “You have to strike when the iron is hot,” she said, noting today’s media landscape demands immediacy.
“Our attention spans are maxed out,” she said. “If you don’t get it done within a few months’ time … what’s the point?”
The creative team moved fast. Twin choreographers Tiffany and Brook Engen signed on and a seasoned Broadway cast was assembled: Jay Armstrong Johnson as Ilya and Jimin Moon as Shane among them.
Finding the Ilya accent
Armstrong Johnson, who has been performing on stage professionally since 2007, says Kliffer slid into his Instagram DMs and asked him if he would be interested in doing a concert reading (a performance of a musical where there is no staging and performers sing or read lines directly from scripts on music stands) of the show without an audition. He immediately said yes.
“It seemed like a perfect opportunity for something fun and ridiculous,” Armstrong Johnson said.
A fan of the series for its joyous depiction of a queer love story, he calls it “one of the more perfect pieces of television.”
Actor and singer Jay Armstrong Johnson, one of the stars of Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, teases a hint of Ilya’s Russian accent, and says he hopes audiences leave the show feeling uplifted.
Armstrong Johnson arrived at rehearsal expecting to wing Ilya’s Russian accent. He said if it’s “kind of bad, it’ll be funnier, right?” But MarcAurele and Kliffer insisted on authenticity.
So he hired a dialect coach, just as Storrie did for the series. He leaned on his musical-comedy chops to balance humour with sincerity and studied Storrie’s nuanced performance.
“We’re both curly-headed boys from Texas,” Armstrong Johnson said. “So I’m really taking his inspiration and trying to do right by him.”
A narrator who plays it straight
MarcAurele also introduced a narrator: Susan, the “wine mom.” He describes her as a straight woman from Minnesota in an unhappy marriage, who, after the kids are asleep, “wants to watch gay hockey players with big butts having sex.”
MarcAurele says the character, played by Ryann Redmond, is a wink at how the series has crossed over beyond its core queer audience.
For Ho, the narrator smartly highlights why Heated Rivalry resonated so widely.
Traditionally, she says queer stories were created primarily for queer viewers because they offered a sense of community. Heated Rivalry also provided a sense of safety and emotional comfort, she says, because it was accessible, light-hearted and avoided graphic violence, but still addressed important issues.
However, Ilana Lucas, the president of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, worries that framing the musical with a heterosexual narrator could undermine the queer love story at its core.
“I’m always a little cautious of stories that say we need a straight framing device around this gay story,” she said, adding she’ll withhold judgment until she sees the production.
“It could just be very fun,” she said, “That the show does look at the fact that it became such a phenomenon where that really wasn’t expected.”
Armstrong Johnson also acknowledges that he’s seen people online say they fear the parody will disrespect its source material or veer into homophobia. He emphasizes that the show was written, performed and directed by queer artists, so homophobia has no place in it.
“It really is a love letter and a send‑up of this thing that has had all the gays and theys and girlies in a chokehold for the last six months,” he said.
New York premiere, next stop Canada?
According to MarcAurele and Kliffer, early audience reactions from concert readings suggest the parody lands for both diehards and newcomers, leaving them laughing and moved.
“I hope that fans know that we’re just as much in love with the show as they are,” Kliffer said.
Encouraged by that reaction and the TV show’s momentum, Kliffer opted to premiere the musical in New York to “get the largest footprint” in global press and audience reach.
Lucas, with the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, is cautiously optimistic about the play’s eight-week run off-Broadway.
“If it has success in New York then maybe it’ll come here, because it’s a Canadian phenomenon, right?”
For now, off-Broadway offers the biggest stage to keep Heated Rivalry’s spirit alive, but Kliffer, who also helped launch the Tony-nominated Broadway musical Titanique, says bringing the production to Canada is at the top of his wishlist.
“People would eat this thing up,” he said, adding he believes it would also attract people who don’t usually go to the theatre.
He says that although the show is an unauthorized parody, they did have somebody from HBO come to a concert reading, adding they would be happy to have the blessing of people involved with the show including Reid, show runner Jacob Tierney and the actors.
“We really, really would love to have Rachel and Jacob and Connor and Hudson and all of them to the opening night,” he said.
“And hey, if you see it, this is your invite! We really, really want you there and just love your work.”
