Welcome to my new blog. For those of you who followed my old one, I'm afraid you will find no potatoes here (sorry!). What you will find are reviews and ramblings on all my theatrical adventures, which are many and varied. It may only be January 18th but I've been to 6 shows/concerts in 2011 already, which I hope to catch up with blogging about over the next few days...or at least before my next trip!!
I want to kick off with my most recent adventure - the recording of two episodes of 'Showstopper! The Improvised Musical' for Radio 4 in the BBC Radio Theatre, Broadcasting House. I apply for free tickets for TV and radio shows all the time, with very little success, so imagine my surprise when I received tickets for three different recording dates of Showstopper. Unfortunately, I couldn't go on the first date I received tickets for (it was the same date as I won tickets to the Australian Classic Rock Show but that's a whole other blog) but on Sunday 16th January I hopped on the coach to London with absolutely no idea what to expect. I'd applied for the tickets on the basis that 'improvised,' 'musical' and 'free' sounded like a combination this onion would enjoy, and I wasn't wrong.
Showstopper is Who's Line is it Anyway? meets musical theatre in a fantastically funny combination. Each episode is half an hour long and creates a brand new improvised musical. The 'writer' asks for suggestions from the audience for a theme and location to set the scene and it is then up to the five actors, supported by two musicians and two backing singers, to improvise the story and songs. The writer has a bell that he can use to pause the action at any time for the audience to make further suggestions, throw his own spanners in the workers, re-cap on the plot for the audience when it's all gone a bit crazy, or just to ask what a 'minty' is!!!!
This is all presented by an incredibly talented group of performers. In each episode appear ten of the following core team: Chris Ash, Ruth Bratt, Julie Clare, Dylan Emery, Pippa Evans, Sean McCann, Adam Meggido, Philip Pellew, Nigel Pilkington, Andrew Pugsley, Oliver Senton, Lucy Trodd, Sarah-Louise Young and Duncan Walsh-Atkins. Not only are they a group of fantastic singers and musicians but their improvisation skills are amazing. In a split second they can describe their deepest feelings using the imagery of jelly, create a 14th centuary national anthem with the performers taking it in turns to sing one word each, or invent a 'minty'!
Having got a taste of a couple of the episodes, I'm sure this is going to be a really funny series and I highly recommend everyone checks it out. The series starts this Wednesday (19th January) on Radio 4 at 6.30pm. I'm not quite sure how far into the series the ones I was at will be broadcast but, without giving too much away, listen out for a murder mystery weekend and the peasants revolt. I'm really looking forward to listening to the whole series now and whether your passion is comedy, musical theatre, or if you just want to know what a 'minty' is then tune in.
The Showstopper team also perform full length improvised musicals and will be at the Ambassadors Theatre throughout February and March, as well as performances in Poole, Selby, Banbury and Brighton. Check out http://www.theambassadorstheatre.co.uk/ and http://www.showstoppermusical.com/ for more info.
Just to give you an idea of the sheer randomness of Showstopper!, my mother and I actually had this conversation while listening to it last night:
ReplyDeleteMum "Pig?"
Me "It's what the juggler was juggling!"
Mum "But when I went out they were on dinosaurs?!"
Classic!