June 17, 2025 • 11 mins
Asher Griffith-Jones chats to Subculture about Thrones! The Musical Parody.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, listeners, if you love theater, you'll probably know that
Thrones the musical parody has landed in Melbourne and we
thought today to find out a little bit more about
this absolutely fantastic production. We would actually get one of
the stars of the show, Asher Griffith Jones on the
phone right now to chat all about it. Welcome to
the program, Asha, thanks very.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Much for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Dave happy to share this wonderful production with you and
your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
No worries. So as to tell us a little bit
about Thrones. This of course is a Game of Thrones parody.
Tell us a little bit about Thrones and how you've
become involved with the production here in Australia.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
So Thrones is a bit of a love letter and
a bit of a middle finger at the same time
to the Game of Thrones TV series. So it's a
bit more of a love letter for the first seven
seasons and a bit of a middle finger to the
eighth infinite that everyone, I guess unanimously kind of hated.
(01:05):
It's about a group of just normal people that are
there on the season finale for season eight and one
of their friends hasn't watched Game of Thrones, So in
order to catch their friend Linda up, they have to
pretty much put on a performance of.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
The entire series. There's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
There's some stupid, stupid music, some stupid stupid impersonations, and
it's ridiculously funny.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So tell us a little bit about your role. What
role do you actually play in the production?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So I'm an on stage swing, so I'm not one
of the main cast, but I am there just in
case any of the cast, a male cast that is,
are sick or unable to work on a particular night.
So I've studied for their three male roles and three
female roles, so that would be I guess following characters
(01:58):
such as Jora Mormon, Terry and Lanister john snow called Drogo,
even the head of her of Drogo the Dragon. So
there's a lot of characters that I cover. But for
the time being, for the season so far, I've just
been an on stage swing, so just being a bit
of backup dancing and singing in the background.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well what's that for young actors and actresses out there?
What is that actually like? Kind of being the backup
like that? Because I went and saw a production, I'm
trying to remember it must have been late last year,
and the lead actress at the last hour before they
went on stage had to pull out because she was sick,
and the whole cast basically had to revolve. We're all
(02:39):
sitting in the audience on the night going, oh, hang
on a minute, that's not Casey Donovan who's playing the lead,
And then we realized that everybody had had to shuffle around.
What's that like for you, because of course, as you
said before, you basically have to learn four or five
different parts.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, so it is.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It's quite streasful because, like sometimes you do have scheduled
times where you are going to be going on. So
for example, an actor has an event or has an
unavailability that they know of well in advance, and you
can be like, all right, I know on the thirteenth,
I'm going to be going on, and you can prepare
for that. But obviously, as you mentioned, sometimes you get
(03:18):
a call an hour before the show and it's just
go time. You have to go through all the scripts,
all the dancers, all the harmonies, make sure that you
actually remember the right person's words, because there's one thing
when you're covering, say, for example, with this show.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
There's three characters and three tracks.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Sure you can remember all the lines for all the characters,
but sometimes you may be remembering the wrong person's characters
and perhaps say the wrong person's lines instead of the
correct person that's actually on.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So you just have to make sure you go through
all of that.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So luckily for me, I haven't had the pleasure of
being called on stage yet, but it's something that you
totally have to be super or ready for and have
all your notes, like tons of highlights, tons of diagrams.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You know where you're going, what notes to.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Sing, and of course, when you have such a supportive
cast like we have at Thrones, you know you're being
supported the entire time there. So if you make a
mistake or you need a little bit of help on stage,
and I'll push you in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
We know we've all got each other's backs, and you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Know, and you're working with such an amazing cast as well.
I know we've had Kelsey on this show before to
talk about crawl intentions, and we've had a few of
the other cast members that you've got there as well.
Tell us a little bit about this amazing cast and
what they've been like to work with.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, so it's been E's fantastic thing these guys, but
so much into the show, like it's ridiculously how funny
these guys are. And then like, obviously it's a musical,
but it's a parody, so you think, sure, all right,
maybe it's just going to be a little bit of fun,
it's going to be a little bit of hamming it up.
But these guys are putting like their a game vocally,
(04:56):
their a game dance wise into it like it is
regardless if it's a funny musical or not. There's so
much craft there being on the stage. And you've got
some veterans from parody on stage as well, so you're
obviously from Crawl Intensions, you've got Kelsey and Connor, but
you've also got Belinda there from Friends the Musical and
(05:17):
Love Actually, so you've got some very funny people on stage.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's an explosive dynamic definitely.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
So for you coming into this production, were you a
Game of Thrones fan or were you a Game of
Thrones virgin before coming into this.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
No, I Unfortunately, to many of my friends, I am
a not only a Game of Thrones fan, I am
a massive a Song of Ice and Fire Nerd some
one of those book readers that were quite wanky during
the seasons when I felt so up myself for going well,
I actually knew that already. Well, actually it's different in
the book, so actually they've got a different name because YadA, YadA, yadda.
(05:51):
I was one of those insufferable people, and unfortunately I'm
one of those insufferable people in the rearthal room too.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So what was it like for you to sit down
and read the script being a fan of the show.
I mean a lot of people, I'm sure who are
going along to see the production are fans. So what
was that like for you as a fan when you
first sat down and read the parody script?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, so it's it's it's one of those special shows
where like, obviously this is totally suitable for people that
are familiar with the show, familiar with the books, but
in terms of the comedy and in terms of because
like everyone knows Game of Thrones, well not everyone, but
like a vast majority do, whether they've.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Seen it or not.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
They've got some sort of idea about the silly accents
that they have and the nudity and the dragons and
the combination of Lord of the Rings and Paor and
people tend to know like, oh, that's that's Game of Thrones.
It's just a classic HBO thing there. So seeing the
I guess the balance between it just being a normal,
funny show and then having some super niche references in there,
(06:57):
hatering from people that have seen maybe one or two
episodes just hurt about it, or people that have like
complete book nerdes that I've scoured for Reddit forums, watched
the Theories Model full times, and I read all the
books and and sir recal material as well, like Hassle
a Dragon or a World of Ice and Fire.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It was a pleasure seeing how much love they put
into all the different aspects of different fans.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I've always found it really weird that people that only
casually know about it what they do know about it.
Because my poor old mom, she tries to keep up
with pop culture because that's that's my life, and I'll
she'll she'll just she'll tag onto something. She'll be like
the other day she said to my wife something about, oh,
Demon Slayer, the anime that's the one with the pig,
(07:45):
isn't it. One day she said to me with Game
of Thrones. Game of Thrones, that's the one where the
brother's doing the sister. Isn't it like it's a.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Big incests show. Everyone knows about the incest. People cheer
for the incest. This is a big thing. This is
a big thing.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I opened the show by going like, hey, just like
your normal be like turn off your phones, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And then I asked people like, what are they're ready for?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You're ready for some awful murders, You're ready for some
parody songs, And then I ask if people are ready
for incest?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And the crowd goes wild.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Every night. People want to see the incests. That's what
they signed up for with Game of Thrones.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, and we should talk a little bit about the
history of this show as well, because of course, this
is a show that's been done in Vegas, it's been
done in America. In fact, I believe it has a
little bit of a link to Saturday Night Live as well.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Some of the the cast from Saturday Live, Saturday Night Live,
like Thomas Middleditch were our writers for the original production
of this show. So it's gone for a lot of
work shopping. I believe it initially was done before even
the series.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Was done, so like it's obviously.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's been several years since the series is completed, and
back when it was in its initial baby version of itself,
it was a parody of Game of Thrones while it
was it was still airing, So it's done a lot
of evolving over the years.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And I have to ask, seeing as such a big
fan of the show and of the books, what did
you think of that final season?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Oh boy, you really want to bring up the trauma? Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I think the best way I've heard people talk about it,
and I really feel with this way as well, is
that it's like a parent telling a bedtime story and
it's full of detail, but then the parent looks at
the clock and realizes, shit, I just need to go
to bed.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's way too late.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So they just list what's happened, This happened, this happened,
this happened, and good night.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's the end of the story.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And that felt like the season eight, Like, I don't
have issues with what happened. I just think that pacing
was so wrong. They didn't give time for anything to
happen between It was just plot points. It was like really,
it was like watching a bullet point.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, presentation definitely. Now, for all of our listeners out there,
if you do want to go along and check out
Thrones the parody musical, it is on at the Alex
Theater which is in Saint Kilda, and tickets are available
right now from www dot Thrones dot com dot au.
And I guess ask you to finish off, what would
you like to say to people out there who are
(10:15):
thinking about going along and checking out the show.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Go and check out the show, bine tickets, come see
it for the lanister, send their regards.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
And I guess I guess one of the questions that
people have been asking me is, though I don't think
you kind of answered this before, if there's a whole
bunch of Game of Thrones nerds like me that love
the show and you've got that one friend who's never
seen the show, is that one friend gonna feel left
out if you bring them along to the musical.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're going to feel a little bit lost.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
But the great thing about the musical is that one
of the main characters, Linda, is someone who hasn't seen
the show either. So the entire show is people going
through explaining the story of Game of Thrones to their friend.
So not only will your friend not feel left out,
they're actually going to learn about Game of Thrones and
then learn why it turn to shit.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
At the end. Definitely, and once again for all our
listeners out there, if you do want to go along
and see Thrones the parody musical. It is on now
at the Alex Theatre in Saint Kilda and you can
grab tickets from www dot Thrones dot com dot au.
Well, listeners, if you love theater, you'll probably know that
Thrones the musical parody has landed in Melbourne and we
thought today to find out a little bit more about
this absolutely fantastic production. We would actually get one of
the stars of the show, Asher Griffith Jones on the
phone right now to chat all about it. Welcome to
the program, Asha, thanks very.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Much for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Dave happy to share this wonderful production with you and
your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
No worries. So as to tell us a little bit
about Thrones. This of course is a Game of Thrones parody.
Tell us a little bit about Thrones and how you've
become involved with the production here in Australia.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
So Thrones is a bit of a love letter and
a bit of a middle finger at the same time
to the Game of Thrones TV series. So it's a
bit more of a love letter for the first seven
seasons and a bit of a middle finger to the
eighth infinite that everyone, I guess unanimously kind of hated.
(01:05):
It's about a group of just normal people that are
there on the season finale for season eight and one
of their friends hasn't watched Game of Thrones, So in
order to catch their friend Linda up, they have to
pretty much put on a performance of.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
The entire series. There's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
There's some stupid, stupid music, some stupid stupid impersonations, and
it's ridiculously funny.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So tell us a little bit about your role. What
role do you actually play in the production?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So I'm an on stage swing, so I'm not one
of the main cast, but I am there just in
case any of the cast, a male cast that is,
are sick or unable to work on a particular night.
So I've studied for their three male roles and three
female roles, so that would be I guess following characters
(01:58):
such as Jora Mormon, Terry and Lanister john snow called Drogo,
even the head of her of Drogo the Dragon. So
there's a lot of characters that I cover. But for
the time being, for the season so far, I've just
been an on stage swing, so just being a bit
of backup dancing and singing in the background.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well what's that for young actors and actresses out there?
What is that actually like? Kind of being the backup
like that? Because I went and saw a production, I'm
trying to remember it must have been late last year,
and the lead actress at the last hour before they
went on stage had to pull out because she was sick,
and the whole cast basically had to revolve. We're all
(02:39):
sitting in the audience on the night going, oh, hang
on a minute, that's not Casey Donovan who's playing the lead,
And then we realized that everybody had had to shuffle around.
What's that like for you, because of course, as you
said before, you basically have to learn four or five
different parts.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, so it is.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It's quite streasful because, like sometimes you do have scheduled
times where you are going to be going on. So
for example, an actor has an event or has an
unavailability that they know of well in advance, and you
can be like, all right, I know on the thirteenth,
I'm going to be going on, and you can prepare
for that. But obviously, as you mentioned, sometimes you get
(03:18):
a call an hour before the show and it's just
go time. You have to go through all the scripts,
all the dancers, all the harmonies, make sure that you
actually remember the right person's words, because there's one thing
when you're covering, say, for example, with this show.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
There's three characters and three tracks.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Sure you can remember all the lines for all the characters,
but sometimes you may be remembering the wrong person's characters
and perhaps say the wrong person's lines instead of the
correct person that's actually on.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So you just have to make sure you go through
all of that.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So luckily for me, I haven't had the pleasure of
being called on stage yet, but it's something that you
totally have to be super or ready for and have
all your notes, like tons of highlights, tons of diagrams.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You know where you're going, what notes to.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Sing, and of course, when you have such a supportive
cast like we have at Thrones, you know you're being
supported the entire time there. So if you make a
mistake or you need a little bit of help on stage,
and I'll push you in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
We know we've all got each other's backs, and you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Know, and you're working with such an amazing cast as well.
I know we've had Kelsey on this show before to
talk about crawl intentions, and we've had a few of
the other cast members that you've got there as well.
Tell us a little bit about this amazing cast and
what they've been like to work with.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, so it's been E's fantastic thing these guys, but
so much into the show, like it's ridiculously how funny
these guys are. And then like, obviously it's a musical,
but it's a parody, so you think, sure, all right,
maybe it's just going to be a little bit of fun,
it's going to be a little bit of hamming it up.
But these guys are putting like their a game vocally,
(04:56):
their a game dance wise into it like it is
regardless if it's a funny musical or not. There's so
much craft there being on the stage. And you've got
some veterans from parody on stage as well, so you're
obviously from Crawl Intensions, you've got Kelsey and Connor, but
you've also got Belinda there from Friends the Musical and
(05:17):
Love Actually, so you've got some very funny people on stage.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's an explosive dynamic definitely.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
So for you coming into this production, were you a
Game of Thrones fan or were you a Game of
Thrones virgin before coming into this.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
No, I Unfortunately, to many of my friends, I am
a not only a Game of Thrones fan, I am
a massive a Song of Ice and Fire Nerd some
one of those book readers that were quite wanky during
the seasons when I felt so up myself for going well,
I actually knew that already. Well, actually it's different in
the book, so actually they've got a different name because YadA, YadA, yadda.
(05:51):
I was one of those insufferable people, and unfortunately I'm
one of those insufferable people in the rearthal room too.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So what was it like for you to sit down
and read the script being a fan of the show.
I mean a lot of people, I'm sure who are
going along to see the production are fans. So what
was that like for you as a fan when you
first sat down and read the parody script?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, so it's it's it's one of those special shows
where like, obviously this is totally suitable for people that
are familiar with the show, familiar with the books, but
in terms of the comedy and in terms of because
like everyone knows Game of Thrones, well not everyone, but
like a vast majority do, whether they've.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Seen it or not.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
They've got some sort of idea about the silly accents
that they have and the nudity and the dragons and
the combination of Lord of the Rings and Paor and
people tend to know like, oh, that's that's Game of Thrones.
It's just a classic HBO thing there. So seeing the
I guess the balance between it just being a normal,
funny show and then having some super niche references in there,
(06:57):
hatering from people that have seen maybe one or two
episodes just hurt about it, or people that have like
complete book nerdes that I've scoured for Reddit forums, watched
the Theories Model full times, and I read all the
books and and sir recal material as well, like Hassle
a Dragon or a World of Ice and Fire.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It was a pleasure seeing how much love they put
into all the different aspects of different fans.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I've always found it really weird that people that only
casually know about it what they do know about it.
Because my poor old mom, she tries to keep up
with pop culture because that's that's my life, and I'll
she'll she'll just she'll tag onto something. She'll be like
the other day she said to my wife something about, oh,
Demon Slayer, the anime that's the one with the pig,
(07:45):
isn't it. One day she said to me with Game
of Thrones. Game of Thrones, that's the one where the
brother's doing the sister. Isn't it like it's a.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Big incests show. Everyone knows about the incest. People cheer
for the incest. This is a big thing. This is
a big thing.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I opened the show by going like, hey, just like
your normal be like turn off your phones, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And then I asked people like, what are they're ready for?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You're ready for some awful murders, You're ready for some
parody songs, And then I ask if people are ready
for incest?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And the crowd goes wild.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Every night. People want to see the incests. That's what
they signed up for with Game of Thrones.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, and we should talk a little bit about the
history of this show as well, because of course, this
is a show that's been done in Vegas, it's been
done in America. In fact, I believe it has a
little bit of a link to Saturday Night Live as well.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Some of the the cast from Saturday Live, Saturday Night Live,
like Thomas Middleditch were our writers for the original production
of this show. So it's gone for a lot of
work shopping. I believe it initially was done before even
the series.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Was done, so like it's obviously.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's been several years since the series is completed, and
back when it was in its initial baby version of itself,
it was a parody of Game of Thrones while it
was it was still airing, So it's done a lot
of evolving over the years.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And I have to ask, seeing as such a big
fan of the show and of the books, what did
you think of that final season?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Oh boy, you really want to bring up the trauma? Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I think the best way I've heard people talk about it,
and I really feel with this way as well, is
that it's like a parent telling a bedtime story and
it's full of detail, but then the parent looks at
the clock and realizes, shit, I just need to go
to bed.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's way too late.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So they just list what's happened, This happened, this happened,
this happened, and good night.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's the end of the story.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And that felt like the season eight, Like, I don't
have issues with what happened. I just think that pacing
was so wrong. They didn't give time for anything to
happen between It was just plot points. It was like really,
it was like watching a bullet point.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, presentation definitely. Now, for all of our listeners out there,
if you do want to go along and check out
Thrones the parody musical, it is on at the Alex
Theater which is in Saint Kilda, and tickets are available
right now from www dot Thrones dot com dot au.
And I guess ask you to finish off, what would
you like to say to people out there who are
(10:15):
thinking about going along and checking out the show.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Go and check out the show, bine tickets, come see
it for the lanister, send their regards.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
And I guess I guess one of the questions that
people have been asking me is, though I don't think
you kind of answered this before, if there's a whole
bunch of Game of Thrones nerds like me that love
the show and you've got that one friend who's never
seen the show, is that one friend gonna feel left
out if you bring them along to the musical.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're going to feel a little bit lost.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
But the great thing about the musical is that one
of the main characters, Linda, is someone who hasn't seen
the show either. So the entire show is people going
through explaining the story of Game of Thrones to their friend.
So not only will your friend not feel left out,
they're actually going to learn about Game of Thrones and
then learn why it turn to shit.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
At the end. Definitely, and once again for all our
listeners out there, if you do want to go along
and see Thrones the parody musical. It is on now
at the Alex Theatre in Saint Kilda and you can
grab tickets from www dot Thrones dot com dot au.
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