Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

Most musical theatre writers spend years perfecting their work, testing out with audiences, and undoubtedly scrapping a fair few drafts along the way. Showstopper The Improvised Musical does away with all that, and instead produces a brand new musical at every performance using suggestions from the audience. They’re not just good at this, they’re Olivier award-winning good, so when we saw that they were performing at The Lowry there was no question that we had to go.

This show did not disappoint! We were treated to 2 hours of spontaneous hilarity by a versatile and extremely talented cast.

As we entered The Quays Theatre at The Lowry, a soundtrack of songs from a variety of musicals was playing. We’re not sure if this was a subtle way to direct the audience choices or purely for inspiration, but either way an impromptu sing-a-long soon developed around us.

The show began with Sean McCann, the MC for our evening, receiving a phone call from producer “Cameron” who asked for a brand new musical. Thankfully, the writing group aka the audience are available to assist McCann in developing a new show. McCann then steers the audience through selecting a setting for the musical, picking 4 musicals that will be the basis for the song styles, and finally picking a name for this new musical. Using the scientific method of cheer for your favourite suggestion, it was decided that our show would be set in Purgatory, feature the musical stylings of Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, Phantom of the Opera and The Rocky Horror Show, with a title of Better The Devil You Know.

And with that, the 6 strong cast performing the musical dived into an opening number. There was no side chat or discussion about who would do what, just the first number called “Up or Down”. Watching the cast invent lyrics, harmonies and dance routines was mesmerising, but the songs produced were also really good. A week later, we are still humming along to “Up or Down’ the same way we would had we been to see a long-running show. Yes, we maybe had one or two more choruses of “Up or Down” that was necessary whilst the cast thought through how to end the song, but that just added to the fun of the evening.

At various points throughout the show, the MC pauses the action to get additional suggestions from the audience, or to switch the musical stylings. This was a great technique to move the story along, let the cast know timings, but most importantly to keep them on their toes. They couldn’t think too far ahead when an audience curveball was only an interjection away.

Each actor was given the opportunity to create characters as they went along, but the characters created weren’t just shallow, bit characters. The cast developed a range of characters with huge depth to them. Not only did we have detailed backstories for how they had ended up in purgatory, but we also had characters with unresolved trauma, and a couple of love stories.

The cast clearly have a great bond that translates into an effortless synergy on stage. Some of our favourite moments from the show came when the cast forgot details about each other’s characters. Was 17th Century salty pirate called Pete or Jim? Nobody was entirely sure, but his deadpan delivery of the line “I’m a 17th Century pirate, I don’t know what primary school is” had us howling.

Showstopper’s have over 20 people in the company who work on a rotational basis, so you’re never sure who the cast will be. Aside from the previously mentioned Sean McCann, our cast consisted of Jonathan Ainscough, Pippa Evans, Susan Harrison, Ali James, Andrew Pugsley and Lauren Shearing, along with musicians Jordan Clarke and Craig Apps. Every single person was outstanding, but if we had to pick one performer who stood out it would be Jonathan Ainscough. His performance as an overly camp devil who longed to be a cabaret singer absolutely stole the show.

We thought this show would be funny, but we didn’t realise how funny the show would be. We were in absolute hysterics throughout. There’s always that fear of being totally lost during an improv show, or of a confusing storyline falling flat, but there was none of that. Every joke, slightly questionable accent, and big song number delivered.

The show created had a clear beginning, middle and end, as well as character arcs and redemption stories, all set against a musical backdrop. We’re not sure how they did it, but Better The Devil You Know was wrapped up perfectly with no loose ends.

No matter how many times you go to see Showstopper, you will never see the same show twice, and we can’t wait to watch Showstopper again. We will definitely be on the lookout for future tours. We honestly cannot praise the brilliance of this show enough!

Originally posted: June 6, 2023