'Ginger Twinsies' Off-Broadway review — 'Parent Trap' parody racks up laughs
Read our review of Ginger Twinsies off Broadway, a parody of the 1998 The Parent Trap film, written and directed by Kevin Zak and playing at the Orpheum Theatre.
Nineties fashion may be back in style, but '90s rom-coms never left. If the crowds at a given night of previews for Ginger Twinsies are anything to show for it, people love a romp through their old favorites. And that’s exactly what this play, a parody of the 1998 movie The Parent Trap, delivers.
Written and directed by Kevin Zak, Ginger Twinsies is chock-full of camp, both aesthetically and literally: The play starts and ends with the characters actually camping. Perhaps the most memorable moment is Annie’s (Russell Daniels) and Martin’s (Jimmy Ray Bennett) secret handshake, which extends into a vaudeville number, a homage to Stomp (which played for decades in Ginger Twinsies's venue, the Orpheum Theatre), and a duet before it finally ends. The only way it could have been campier is if the play was faithful to the movie, and the entire thing was repeated when Hallie switched places with Annie. But it’s probably for the sake of the show’s runtime that it doesn't.
The pop culture references don’t stop there. One of the most applauded scenes at my performance was when Hallie goes to pierce Annie’s ears, and everything slows down while Annie parodies the Hamilton duel monologue and the piercing needle makes its way towards her ear à la Ariana DeBose as the Bullet.
The cast is much of what makes this show such a hit, with standouts Chessy (Grace Reiter) and Meredith Blake (Phillip Taratula) monopolizing attention with their mesmerizing performances — and in Meredith’s case, an enormous hat. And Aneesa Folds’s delivery of the line “Daddy always says I’m the only girl in his life” is still playing on a loop in my brain.
Ginger Twinsies revels in the depths of its absurdity, and my audience reveled happily along with it. The show doesn’t just poke fun at a slightly ridiculous '90s romcom, but anything even remotely adjacent, from its cartoonish depiction of London as an amalgam of every Hollywood movie ever set there to the “queer-adjacent” rom-com characters that end up in a happy, straight marriage like in a Shakespearean comedy.
Highbrow social commentary this show is not, nor does it strive to be. Ginger Twinsies is exactly what it hopes to be: a fast-paced, queer parody of a beloved cultural classic that may just be the spiritual successor of Titanique. With Russell Daniels and Aneesa Folds as the titular ginger twinsies and a whole host of hilarious supporting characters, audiences won’t be able to stop laughing even if they try.
Ginger Twinsies summary
Hallie Parker and Annie James are 11-year-old redhead girls who are actually twins, secretly separated at birth. The truth comes out when they attend the same summer camp, and they devise a trap to force their estranged single parents to reunite. They switch places, and Hallie goes home to their mother in London while Annie goes home to their father in California.
The twin swap is discovered before too long, but not before the girls realize there is a wrench in their matchmaking plan, by way of Nick Parker’s new fiancée Meredith Blake. They must reunite to take on this new threat and ensure their parents end up happily ever after.
What to expect at Ginger Twinsies
Kevin Zak’s parody of The Parent Trap follows the beats of the original 1998 movie surprisingly closely, given the time set aside for 20-minute-long secret handshakes and nods to other 1990s romcoms or Hollywood movies set in England (Mr. Napkin Head, anyone?). Theatregoers do not need to have seen this movie recently to appreciate the parody, and I’d go so far as to say that just knowing the concept of The Parent Trap is enough to appreciate the campy humor of Ginger Twinsies. However, a recent watch of the 1998 movie will certainly help theatregoers appreciate just how lovingly this parody mocks its origins.
Ginger Twinsies is pretty much 80 straight minutes of raucous laughter. The jokes are neverending and they’re never dull, especially when Taratula, as Meredith, is on stage. It’s a compliment to the writing and acting, but the laughter also drowns out some of the dialogue, forcing the actors to project even louder than they already were.
What audiences are saying about Ginger Twinsies
With an 87% rating on Show-Score at the time of publication, Ginger Twinsies is receiving mostly positive audience reviews.
- “Hilarious, pure camp take on the Parent Trap. Give in to the insanity!” - Show-Score user Show Addict
- “It’s a pop culture potluck that left me in stitches all night.” - Show-Score user Nate 4301
- “This show is a millennial fever dream…I would go back again just to uncover the myriad of jokes and references from the 90s I probably missed!” - Show-Score user Rebecca_M
Read more audience reviews of Ginger Twinsies on Show-Score.
Who should see Ginger Twinsies
- Millennials and any lovers of 1990s/early aughts movies will go wild for this parody of a beloved '90s movie, plus all the '90s/'00s pop culture Easter eggs sprinkled throughout.
- Theatregoers who have a Titanique-sized hole in their hearts since the popular Titanic parody closed may be able to fill it with the matching camp of Ginger Twinsies.
- Anyone looking for a more relaxed theatre experience than a typical night on Broadway will enjoy this 80-minute play at a venue in the East Village rather than in Midtown.
Learn more about Ginger Twinsies off Broadway
Ginger Twinsies is ridiculous, raunchy fun, and for anyone in need of 80 minutes of laughter, the Orpheum Theatre is the place to be.
Photo credit: Ginger Twinsies off Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)
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