Inside the Rehearsal Studio for BLANK! THE MUSICAL

According to theatrical tropes and an age-old adage: "No two performances are ever the same." This couldn't be truer for the upcoming interactive Off-Broadway improvised musical BLANK! THE MUSICAL. And yes, improvised musical is NOT a typo. Co-created by Michael Girts (Chicago's The Second City), Mike Descoteaux (ImprovBoston), and T.J. Shanoff (The Second City), this innovative improv showcase promises to have audiences busting a gut with the only musical show that requires them to help create it.

Last week, I got to take a peek behind the scenes of BLANK! THE MUSICAL. With a handful of other press people, I sat in studio 16T at Ripley-Grier Studios and got to enjoy a special preview of what is poised to be the comedy hit of Off-Broadway this holiday season. Producer Matt Britten said, as a genre, "musical improv is only about 15 years old." However, from what I saw, BLANK! THE MUSICAL is ready to perfect it. After all, as Matt Britten pointed out, "this is musical improv through the eyes of Broadway."

The nightly goal of BLANK! THE MUSICAL is to create an improvised musical that is so polished and put together that it "fees like a legit piece of musical theatre that is worthy of presentation" says Michael Girts. This is no small feat though when you are completely relying on the audience to give your brand new musical its title, musical theme(s), choreographic vocabulary, and songs. So, to prepare, the cast and creative team have been taking in as many musicals as they can and taking notes on all the devices used in Broadway's rosters of musicals. In rehearsal, the team has been creating a toolbox filled with their knowledge of the techniques and devices that make Broadway musicals tick, which includes Broadway character and plot archetypes.

Once the show is up and running at New World Stages, the audience will be solely responsible for creating the show they see. Every member of the audience will be invited to join BLANK! THE MUSICAL's WiFi and utilize the specially designed web technology to fill in all of the blanks at BLANK! THE MUSICAL. Their individual and unique suggestions will populate an on-stage screen and be used to craft the entertainment they take in. They'll even create musical motifs and get to vote on the overture, which will then be played by the small pit orchestra who will improvise the music based on the four note theme the audience creates.

It truly sounds prone to fall victim to Murphy's Law, but in the shortened preview performance I saw, the concept worked beautifully. As an audience we asked the cast to perform the musical STAIRWAY TO HELL, with the ominous musical theme of B-C-F-D and the songs "Clueless on Repeat" and "Hades is Home." Watching the skilled comedians come up with dialogue and lyrics on the spot as the musical director crafted tunes on the fly, the assembled members of the press were splitting at the seams from laughter. The cast created characters we quickly invested in, and it was pretty amazing to see our suggestions come to life before our eyes.

Don't miss your chance to be part of creating a brand new musical. Just be warned, BLANK! THE MUSICAL only has a limited 6 week run at New World Stages. BLANK! THE MUSICAL begins on November 1, 2014 and plays Sundays at 7:00 p.m. and Thursdays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. There will be no performances on November 16 and November 27, but audiences can catch BLANK! THE MUSICAL on November 17 at 7:00 p.m. and November 24 and November 25 at 8:00 p.m. For tickets and more information, please visit http://www.blankthemusical.com. You can also follow BLANK! THE MUSICAL on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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