Showstopper! The Improvised Musical at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre
★★★★★
Can you write a musical on the spot? Well, the Showstopper team certainly gave it a good try… and in my opinion, a successful one! At my performance, the musical attempting to be written was Did You See-A-Saurus? (two dashes AND a question mark!) which blended Back To The Future, Mamma Mia, Hamilton and Heathers… yes, that classic combo.
After having seen Showstopper! performing at West End Live, I knew I had to catch them whilst they are on their UK tour and I can certainly say I was not disappointed… in fact, I don't think I stopped laughing.
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD*
Content Warnings:
The theatre did not have any warnings on display and due to the nature of this show being that it is completely improvised it is difficult to say what warnings could be worth mentioning apart from possible strong language and mature themes.
My Review:
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is created by a group of performers and musicians with different combinations performing each night whilst improvising a two act musical. For my show, the performers were Ruth Bratt, Philip Pellew, Andrew Pugsley, Ali James, with Sean McCann as the writer. The band was Duncan Walsh Atkins and Alex Atty. The ability of a team who interchangeably alter who they perform with night by night to go out and improvise a two act musical is so immensely impressive and as an audience member I would have assumed that the particular team I saw had been working with each other as a small group for ages due to how well they were able to play off and interact with each others.
The show begins with the audience suggesting four shows for the improvised musical to feature elements of/be inspired by and then the suggestion of various titles, around 3, which are voted on and the audience favourite is the show that they get to see. The performance I saw had the title “Did You See-A-Saurus” and it was an absolute blast.
The cast were brilliant at coming up with a show on the spot, only breaking a few times and those moments were absolutely hilarious and the audience were dying of laughter with the cast. I don’t think I stopped laughing from start to finish and I have already booked to see another performance after how much I enjoyed this experience. Despite being improvised the show had a sense of being a complete performance with a strong storyline and a clear ending which was so impressive to see as improvisation is already impressive let alone when you then factor in trying to cohesively improvise for 2 hours with an interval and without losing your flow. The entire Showstopper team should be commended on their improvisation and performance skills and I urge people to see them either in London or on tour if you’re after a laugh-out-loud night out.
Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope this review has proved interesting and helpful for you :)
- AnxiousTheatregoer
