On Sunday 30th January I went back for my second dose of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, once again recording for their show on Radio 4. Firstly, if you have no idea what Showstopper! is all about then I suggest you read my post "Showstopper! The Improvised Musical part 1" because this could get confusingly random otherwise!!
Knowing what to expect this visit I was able to spend a little more time people watching, and I think my friend and I pretty much summed up the divide in the room - those who have seen Showstopper! before and those who haven't. It does seem that once you've experienced it you're hooked and you want to drag all your friends along to experience it too...and what better review for a show is there than that? I was hearing around me similar conversations to those I was having with the Showstopper! virgin I'd enticed along; people gushing about the show and explaining how it all works. Although, when a girl near me started listing off the five or six different occasions that she'd seen Showstopper! I was very much aware, not only that I'm still a relative newbie, but also how addictive it can be. The great thing is, because it's completely improvised, every single performance is unique so you can go back again and again and it never get stale. Plus, with such a talented group of performers on board a top quality show is guaranteed every time.
Once again, they recorded two shows that evening, the second being a pirate ship on "The Magical Sea of Dreams" which was packed full of all the Showstopper! madness you'd expect. However, the first show was by far my favourite of all the ones I've either been at the recording for or already listened to on Radio 4. It was a superhero musical based in a Mexican slaughter house...in the human resources department!!! I don't think I need to say anymore about that, other than listen to Radio 4 at 6.30pm every Wednesday to hear not just that crazy offering but a whole series of them.
Glad that the second viewing was as good as the first - I was wondering did they have the same cast for both shows? As the only improv group I saw live had the same cast for around 90% (they were all friends of mine) but I know some who swap out members of the group for availability/other reasons.
ReplyDeleteDylan Emery is always the writer but then they have a bank of performers that make up the cast and backing vocalists. It's not exactly the same people for each radio show but you know you're going to see 7 out of 11 set performers plus Dylan and the musicians. This format really works because you get a combination of familiarity and freshness.
ReplyDeleteCool thanks for letting me know!
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