Review: THE ONE FOUR FIVES at The Improv Shop

A young couple walks into a fertility clinic and begins to lament, through song, about their troubles conceiving a baby over the past five years. The fertility clinic setting, proposed by an audience member, propels a brand-new improvised musical comedy. As the on-the-spot plot unfolds the audience meets the hopeful parents, the clinic director who hires anyone who walks through the door, the unqualified clinic staff, and the three virile suitors competing to be the donor dad for this couple's child. As the nonsense and hilarity ensues THE ONE FOUR FIVES, an improvisational comedy group, takes the audience through a musical narrative that unfolds in the moment. Filled with plenty of laughs, their 40-minute one-act musical changes at each of their performances based on a fictional setting driven by a single audience suggestion.

Meeting at the intersection of improvisation and musical comedy is THE ONE FOUR FIVES, a comedy troupe that performs at The Improv Shop in St. Louis. THE ONE FOUR FIVES are made up of four women and three men who create two entirely original musicals at each performance. Their show features two parts. The first is a 40-minute Broadway-style musical based on a hero's arc narrative and the second part of their show is a 25-minute improvisation musical comedy based on an interview from a randomly selected audience member.

Anna Bushlack, Ashley Rube, Boo Kersting, Jenn Korman, Andy Sloey, Nathan Maul and Ryan Myers are the highly skilled and experienced musical improvisers who take their audience through this one-of-a-kind experience. They're accompanied, on piano, by Darrell Barber, the musical director at the Improv Shop. Barber was the pianist in Chicago for i0 Chicago and Second City and had a vision to form a musical improv team in St. Louis. He connected with Barbara "Boo" Kersting who studied improv comedy in Los Angeles and seasoned improviser Ryan Myers who has a background in operatic performance to form THE ONE FOUR FIVES.

This performance of the fertility clinic musical was filled with plenty of poppycock, balderdash and hearty laughs for the bits that worked. Where THE ONE FOUR FIVES really showed their improvisational expertise was in their second act titled, "A Day in the Life." After selecting a volunteer audience member, one of the troupe members interviewed the audience member about their day and allowed the other six on-stage comedians to ask clarifying questions. Based on the interview they created a 25-minute musical narrative.

At this performance the eager audience volunteer, a pediatric anesthetist celebrating her 30th Birthday, took the stage and had nothing compelling to share about her less-than-eventful day. The interview was more difficult than extracting a molar in an attempt gain specifics that could be used to create a musical improvisation that would even be remotely interesting. Somehow, through the comedic magic of their collective abilities, the seven actors constructed 25-minutes of anecdotal jokes to induce audience guffaws and belly laughs. Their instantly created story included everything from anesthetizing patients to pull teeth, a gag no doubt driven from the painful audience interview process, to cracking jokes about the volunteer's hypo-allergenic dog breeds. Their ability to craft something hilarious out of an interview that provided nothing illustrates the improvisational expertise of these seven comedians.

THE ONE FOUR FIVES performs to sold-out audiences monthly at The Improv Shop at 3960 Choteau Ave. in St. Louis, Missouri. Tickets are currently available on their website, onefourfives.com, for their upcoming performances on April 8th and April 11th. Tickets for their May 20th performance are not yet on sale.

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