Reviewed by: Glam Adelaide
Review by Samantha Bond | 10 March 2023
If you were alive during the 90s and haven't heard of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, you must have been living under a rock! So, taking on such a cult fav for a satirical Fringe show is a risky venture that could've resulted in many disgruntled Scoobies. Luckily, Brendan Murphy makes such a great Spike that there was no need to slay him at The Box on Tuesday night. The show promises all seven series of Buffy in seventy minutes and Murphy delivers. Not only personifying the peroxide blonde bad vamp we all loved to hate, (then loved when he legit joined the Scoobies), Murphy does a fab job of impersonating most of the regular Buffy cast and summarising the plots of each season. Angel gets the spooky treatment in a full length leather trench, Willow references that one time at band camp, Xander shows he was the Chandler Bing of Sunnydale High, Giles encourages a kiss the librarian approach, and Buffy is great (if slightly creepy) in her iconic blonde wig performing a 90s sexy cheerleader dance. Murphy keeps the energy high through all 70 minutes, manages accents and prop/costume changes with aplomb, queries why the Bronze was always full of children (didn't we all?) and squeezes in several original songs about Buffy and the gang set to immediately recognisable 90s hits. There is satire a plenty (Dru did not kill Kendra, the only black person in Sunnydale, because she was racist, she did it cause she was evil) and the onstage ascension of Mayor Wilkins into a huge snake is a particular treat. This show is aimed at a very specific audience—if you're unfamiliar with the show, it would be hard to understand what's going on—but for die hard Buffy fans, this was such a fun night. It's probably not for the kiddies due to some of the deliberately offensive sexual humour from Whislter, but mid-teens up should be fine. All I can really say is 'Grrr, argh!'