The stars of 'Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody’ love that the show is hotter than ever

Jimin Moon and Jay Armstrong Johnson, who star as closeted hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, discuss why the story's humor, heart, and hotness thrive on screen and stage.

Summary

• Jimin Moon and Jay Armstrong Johnson star as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov in Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody off Broadway
• They discuss the fan response to the TV series and stage show; their connections to their characters; and the formative queer media in their lives
• The musical spoofs the Canadian TV show about a secret romance between pro hockey players

When Jimin Moon and Jay Armstrong Johnson tell people they're starring in Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody off Broadway, they're always asked the same questions. "'Are y'all getting naked?'" quoted Johnson. "'Is it as sexy as the TV show?'"

Viewers started streaming Heated Rivalry, adapted from two Rachel Reid novels about closeted hockey players, for the, ahem, pucking. They stayed for the unexpected emotional depth in Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov's (Connor Storrie) story of self-discovery and love, interwoven with that of fellow hockey pro Scott Hunter and his beau, Kip.

That's true of the stage show, too, even though its run through Heated Rivalry's eight-year span is speedier and sillier in tone. "You come for the sex, you stay for the songs, you come back for the laughter," said Johnson, who plays Ilya opposite Moon's Shane. "There's already been people that have seen it three and four times." According to Johnson, executives from Heated Rivalry's American streaming platform HBO Max even attended an early concert staging, and Reid has discussed the musical in interviews.

Written by Dylan MarcAurele within mere months of the TV show's late-2025 release, the musical is also a homage to Heated Rivalry’s fanbase, represented on stage by the newly invented narrator Susan and her same-named friends. (Three other actors play these and numerous other roles.) Real-life "Susans" obsessed with Williams and Storrie's onscreen chemistry won't find Moon's and Johnson's lacking — the pair had already known each other for years through Johnson's boyfriend, and Moon said this project "cemented" their friendship.

"It's been really fun. It's so wonderful to have a partner in crime. I love you," Moon said to Johnson, who replied, "It's been easy. I love you, too."

With its recent extension to November 1 at the Culture Club, Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody is poised to overlap with a whole new wave of HR-mania as filming on season 2 gets underway ahead of a spring 2027 air date. Moon, who performs through August 12, and Johnson talked all things Heated Rivalry, the formative queer media in their own lives, and a scene from the musical in which an audience member plays a pivotal role.

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The musical came out shortly after the TV show premiered. When you signed on, did you expect that Heated Rivalry would still be so popular all these months later?

Johnson: Not this intensely. I mean, I knew it was special, right? I connected with it immediately. My boyfriend was obsessed with it [...] but it was the DMs and messages I was getting from friends of mine that were telling me, "Ooh, you're giving Ilya Rozanov," because I'm a curly-headed white dude. Before it even came my way, people were telling me I look like the guy, which was very nice because Connor Storrie is quite good-looking.

Moon: We get to experience so much of the fandom through the people who come and see our show. It keeps it really fresh for me. In my head, everything is Heated Rivalry all the time because that's the people who we get to be around all the time.

And they've been loving it.

Moon: Oh my god, it means the world, truly. We had people come down from Toronto last week.

Johnson: People came up from South Carolina! This group of women — this group of "Susans" — literally took this trip to New York to see this specific musical, which was wild.

Has there been a particularly memorable audience response?

Johnson: It's the sighs. It's when they feel for our relationship.

Moon: That's the best feeling.

Johnson: The laughter's going to come because Dylan's words are genius and stupid, but it's when we get them on the emotional side of things, I'm like, "Yes, we got 'em."

Moon: 100%. It's just sweet to see how much people care about it. I love when people dress up. That's so fun to see. At the end of the show, we bow in bedazzled hockey jerseys, and there were these two girls in the front row wearing bedazzled hockey jerseys, and I was like, "Y'all stole our look!"

Johnson: It feels like a Beyoncé concert. Everyone's showing up to Cowboy Carter with their full cowboy regalia. We've got hockey players in this audience every single night.

What does this show add to the Heated Rivalry universe for fans?

Moon: We talk in musical theatre school about, when you can't speak, you sing; when you can't sing, you dance — showcasing the different depths of emotional content that's happening. One thing we talked so much about in rehearsals for our show is about wanting everything [...] to be 100% earnest in the love story.

Even when I'm singing a song like "This Fuck Was Different From the Last Fuck" — which is a funny line, but to me, at least, completely genuinely, this hookup was very different from the last time, and that's really magical to experience.

In the [TV] show, that's something you're reading through [Shane's] face, through something he's thinking, but you don't really get to hear that inner monologue completely. Especially in a musical, you get to experience the inner monologue basically the whole time. That's a really cool, different way of experiencing the story we all love.

Johnson: Dylan's also done a remarkable job with giving so much to the IP. It's a love letter to Heated Rivalry, the television show and the book, but it's also niche jokes that are musical theatre-focused [and] really smart cultural jokes. My boyfriend's brother, who's a 21-year-old straight man, came to see the show and had never seen Heated Rivalry or heard anything about it, but had a really great time.

Moon: It's niche for a lot of different communities. We got our poli-sci nerds, we got our musical theatre nerds, we got our Heated Rivalry nerds. All the girls are there.

With filming on season 2 reportedly starting soon, there'll be a fresh wave of Heated Rivalry buzz. How do you think that will impact your show?

Moon: There's going to be at least one line change. The one at the very beginning that's like, "Just keep in mind because there's no more Heated Rivalry until 2027." I'll say, "Girl, guess what? Check your app."

Johnson: Everyone is itching for this second season, so we are kind of filling that gap for the fandom, which feels really lovely and exciting. And there are 17 other projects that are also filling the gap, but at least Dylan MarcAurele got on it before everyone else did.

Having known each other for a few years, how did your offstage friendship inform your onstage chemistry?

Moon: In our [...] intimacy rehearsals — shoutout Ann James, Broadway's intimacy director — we went to do one of the kisses, and she was like, "So you guys can just kiss." And we're like, "Yeah, we'll be fine. It'll be okay." Which we're able to do because we both have a deep level of respect and trust for each other, and also that genuine friendship that makes it really easy to have fun. Sometimes I just eat his face on stage.

Johnson: That's right. I consent. Also, I will be your biggest advocate until the day I die.

Individually, what do you connect to about Shane and Ilya?

Johnson: What's crazy is that we often talk about how I'm more like Shane in real life and Jimin's more like Ilya in real life. For us to switch personalities and be the opposites on stage has been really interesting.

Moon: We talked a lot about in rehearsals about, these are characters we know and love so much. How do they go through six episodes, or a whole book, of content in 75 minutes with 10 songs thrown in there? How do you show that journey in a way that makes sense, especially because it takes place over so many years? There is a lot of growing up, especially for Shane.

Because it's a parody, we accentuate that, making him very youthful and naive at the beginning and has his shit together a little bit more at the end.

Johnson: I experienced this semi-recently: When Ilya's dad dies, I've been internalizing that a lot more in the show. This is a boy who lost a parent — lost his second parent. The show gets kind of somber for a hot second in that moment, and then there's nervous laughter.

To see these two humans go through these very real moments in life, and the way we've been asked to root it in honesty by both [director] Alan [Kliffer] and by Dylan, has been fun and challenging because I wanted to walk in and be like, "(silly voice) We're doing a parody!"

Moon: But the lyrics and the words are so funny [as] they are that the comedy comes through best when we're being so deadass.

Heated Rivalry has meant so much to people in terms of media representation. What was a formative piece of media for you in terms of representation?

Moon: When I was, like, 10 years old, the Billy Elliot tour came through my town, and I missed it and I couldn't go. And then my mom surprised me with tickets to the tour stop in Santa Clara or somewhere 2 and a half hours away, and we went. The overture started, and I immediately started weeping, and I didn't stop until I got home. I'm being 100% serious.

I wasn't even really dancing at that point. I was just doing community theatre and knew I loved it. Dance has now become such a major part of my career. I was like, "Boys can dance, too! I love Michael! I want to tap dance with my gay best friend!" That meant the absolute world to me.

Johnson: For me, it was probably Will & Grace. To be able to watch a very queer-coded television show on —

Moon: Queer-coded? It was just gay.

Johnson: They were very gay. But to be a closeted little 14, 15-year-old and be able to watch it with my mom and be able to laugh and feel like that was a safe space, and also was just giving wild representation on a network stage that we'd never quite seen before, it saved my life in a weird kind of way.

The musical's Scott Hunter scene, in which an audience volunteer plays him, is a fan favorite. Do you get to watch it?

Johnson: We can hear it [..] but we don't get to actually experience it with the rest of the [audience]. If we really like the voice of the guy that's playing Scott Hunter, we'll go backstage and peek through the curtain to see if he's hot.

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Photo credit: Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody off Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)