EDINBURGH 2015 - BWW Reviews: SHOWSTOPPER! THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL!, Pleasance Courtyard, August 9 2015

Improvisation is a tricky thing to get right on stage, but what happens when you also have to improvise full band accompaniments, a cappella harmonies and dance routines?

The Showstoppers, a talented troupe of improvisers as heard on BBC Radio Four, manage to do just that in their show at the Pleasance Courtyard. The premise of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is that the company are pitching a new show to a producer, with the slight problem that they still have to come up with the show. That's where you, the audience, come in, being encouraged to suggest quirky situations and showtune styles that the performers and band will weave into a full musical on the spot.

What follows is a show that will delight lovers of musical theatre. The group demonstrate not just improvisational talent, but a keen awareness of the musical form, able to switch from pastiches of West Side Story to Rocky Horror without missing a beat or an opportunity for a laugh. In this sell out performance, the performers took the suggestion of an international convention of dentists and brought it to life with numbers inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, Once and Mamma Mia, as well as plenty of Sweeney Todd gore. The results were delightfully anarchic (even with an outbreak of crowdsurfing!) and competently sung. Other recently created musicals have centred on line dancing contests and Yorkshire chip shops, all backed up by an immensely talented band that riffed on everything from Hairspray to Handel.

Indeed, it is a show you could go back to again and again and always get something different. Judging by the enthusiastic audience reception, many will be be keen to do just that. Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is definitely worth catching this August, and the company show no signs of stopping, hoping to crack the West End this autumn in a crowdfunded production.

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical runs at 22:30 at the Pleasance Courtyard until August 30th.