"Heated Rivalry" was a balm for a particularly bleak winter—I watched it over the course of a few weeks with my boyfriend when it was too cold outside to do anything else, and found myself mesmerized by the steamy love story between two dreamy young hockey players, Canadian Shane Hollander and Russian Ilya Rozanov, who fall in love but feel compelled to hide from a world (the world of hockey, and the world of the mid-2010s, when the show is set, I… think?) that's too bigoted to accept them. The show was a romp—sexy, moving, but ultimately pretty unserious. (My Canadian boyfriend's verdict was that the leads had amazing chemistry, but it wasn't realistic for the best hockey players in the world to all be secretly gay.)
By the time I heard about the concept of the "Heated Rivalry" musical, though, my passion for the show had faded and I was skeptical: Would the off-Broadway production just be a corny recapitulation of a TV moment that was cute, sure, but not much deeper than that? (Star Hudson Williams's inadvertent but undeniable role in kicking off "Wasian discourse" may also have cast a pall over my initial positive viewing experience…) Or could it actually be good? But just a few minutes into "Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody," which opened May 26 at the Culture Club in Chelsea, two realizations hit me like twin bolts of homoerotically charged lightning: I truly loved the experience of watching "Heated Rivalry," and I also love theater. How could I have doubted that I would have a blast?