Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

Edinburgh Fringe – The Pleasance

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is a Fringe institution. We walk in the room expecting a good time, to be thoroughly entertained by the cast’s antics onstage. What happens in that room becomes the stuff of legends and inside jokes. 

The format is simple; The cast is asked to write a new musical in 70 minutes based on random suggestions from the audience – location, composers and musicals – that the cast then use as inspiration and a stylistic starting point for songs throughout the show. It then descends into contained chaos and mischief as the cast literally create something out of very little, building harmonies and counter harmonies off of an idea, a brief melody or a seemingly impossible prompt offered up by Dylan Emery. If the cast are ever thrown off-guard, they manage to hide it remarkably well. It’s truly amazing how they are able to create these large showstoppers (pardon the pun) just by grabbing onto each other’s train of thoughts. They are so sync that they finish each others sentences. It’s truly mesmerising to watch the purest form of creation onstage. 

“It’s truly mesmerising to watch the purest form of creation onstage.”

There are so many positives about this show. The only real disappointment is how little the audience suggestions for musicals and composers are actually used. Usually, it’s one or two songs in a particular style whilst the rest fall into the generic musical theatre/ jazz (which is mostly improvisation anyway) genre. Admittedly the cast are challenged enough, but it feels like the biggest selling point of Showstopper! is the recreation of songs in the style of beloved musicals, and for it to be such a small part of the overall performance is a shame. 

This show is paradise for the musical theatre nerd, it has everything that we love about the genre in one place. There’s a palpable excitement in the room that is just intoxicating, the kind that’s very context-specific and difficult to replicate elsewhere. Showstopper! captures the sense of adrenaline that we feel at seeing our favourite show,  actor or just a song that we love performed live. 

By Katerina Partolina Schwartz

Photo Credit: Ray Burmiston