Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical ★★★★★

This Review is from August 2024

Each night marks the opening of the town’s hottest new musical, but there’s a catch… the writer hasn’t composed a single note and needs your assistance. A musical is created on the spot, using suggestions from the audience.

It’s a wee bit tricky to write a meaningful review of a fully improvised musical show. This rather wonderful performance of The Grape Depression has been and gone.

A rundown vineyard, poppies, Andrea’s hen do (all thirty of whom were sitting directly behind me) Dear Evan Hansen, Chicago, Into the Woods and yes, the title, The Grape Depression were all suggestions from the audience. And from these suggestions, a full cast improvised musical was created.

Except… How much of this show is truly improvised?

Dear Mel… I saw Showstopper tonight and loved it – however it was improvised so, very difficult to review. I want to see it again…

brb

Tonight’s musical is called, Could Do Better. Set at a school parent’s evening, Fiddler on the Roof, wooden spoon carving, Legally Blond, video games and Greece all somehow combine for an equally great, totally and utterly different, very funny show. It could not be more distinct than The Grape Depression. Some of the cast members are the same, but that’s about it.

There’s a good reason Showstopper! has been selling out Edinburgh and the West End for fifteen years. Dylan Emery and his team produce parodies of musicals, that become entirely new, full band, original works. It’s almost tragic that improvised classics like, Got to Pick a Poppy or Two (from The Grape Depression) and Oh, Mr Jenkins (from Could Do Better) wont be heard, even one more time, after they debut.

Go see Showstopper. Then go and see it again.

Martin Walker

Podcast interview with Pippa Evans and Dylan Emery from Showstopper!