There wasn't anything that I found inspiring in Meetup tonight, so I had a trawl elsewhere, and saw cheap tickets for Showstopper. Someone had recommended it to me, so I said I'd give it a shot. Handily enough, start time wasn't until 8, which gave me time to eat at home - for once! It didn't take me very long to get to Piccadilly Circus, then had to orientate myself both below- and above-ground (as usual) to find Shaftesbury Avenue. Anyway, crowds weren't that bad, for once, and I soon arrived..
..and had the pleasure of a central seat, second row from the stage! Well now, that was value for money - I don't often get so close. The crowd was lively - indeed, the fellow to my left jiggled so much before the show that I was shaken in my seat, and must have looked as though I was having a fit..
Onstage was a board with six cards - a random name I didn't recognise on top, names of popular musicals on those underneath. A three-piece band came on about 10 minutes early, to the right of stage, and duly started playing - the action started, however, when the phone started ringing, and the "director" hurried on to answer it. Turned out to be the producer, wanting to know what the new musical would be about.
Which is where the fun started. First, the director asked us for location suggestions - made a note of the best, and then had us vote on them (energetic audience required). When one had been decided on, he took suggestions for a name - we voted on that, too. This went on the card that he placed over the old one, at the top of the board. The other cards were filled with audience suggestions for styles that the musical might adopt, or names of popular musicals or composers. Motown made it up there, as did Stephen Sondheim, and The Lion King. Mind you, he was happy to take any suggestions that were yelled at him, and encouraged us to tweet at the interval - the first several tweets he read out in the second half were, in fact, from our part of the audience! There's audience participation for you..
I have to hand it to them - this is very cleverly done. This guy sits over the side for the whole show, jumping up every now and again to announce that the next part will be done in such-and-such a style; I suspect they run over this at the interval. Not every single suggestion was covered, but several that had been yelled from the audience were. And without exception, every number was beautifully sung - reminiscent of whatever style they were supposed to be using, with lyrics obviously adapted to the situation. The cast frequently had to suppress giggles - this is a light-hearted production. And they have a real flair for comedy - unsurprising, given that, as it says on the poster I noticed on the way out, this is the original cast of The Play That Goes Wrong! They got a standing ovation, and I was not surprised. Recommended - runs until the 29th, plenty of offers available: apparently, this is the first long-form improvisation to get a West End run! They said something about returning customers being able to bring a friend for free.. not quite sure whether they were joking. But, to be fair, as advertised, every night is a new show..
It was pouring on the way home.. tomorrow, I thought I'd be going to Guildford, but now it seems I'm not! Anyway, I'm headed to see the London Russian Ballet School performance at the New Wimbledon Theatre - I missed them last week, when I was flat-hunting. Last week's would have been free, tomorrow's isn't: but I did get a cheap ticket. On Wednesday, I'm with the London European Club for a Hannah Scott gig - unfortunately, it's all the way over in Rotherhithe, but she does sound good. Then there are leaving drinks for another of our colleagues on Thursday, and on Friday I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. I fly back to London on Sunday, then do half a day's work and fly to Dublin on Monday afternoon.. U2 play there the next two nights, which I expect to be the best venue of the tour!
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