Impromptunes is slick fun

COMEDY
Impromptunes – The Completely Improvised Musical
4 stars
Casa Mondo, The Pleasure Garden

REVIEW KENT ACOTT

This review is probably useless. It is certainly superfluous. There is very little point reading any further, really.

That's because the show I saw - the completely improvised musical show, with its completely improvised overture and completely improvised entr'acte - will bear little resemblance to the show you see.

Every night is different.

Based on an audience suggestion, I saw the musical Fairy Floss Brawl. The previous night it was My Mum Drink Drives. And the night before that it was Squids of Wrath. Who knows what it will be tonight?

Working from nothing more than the title, the six-member cast created a story - and a score - built around a fairground where, just two days earlier, fairy-floss man Barry had suddenly died. Gary, armed with his almost useless A-to-Z guide to fairy-floss making, takes over the job.

And, ultimately, he discovers the secret ingredients to good fairy-floss - sugar, sugar, sugar and love.

This hour-long show represents the ultimate in slick improvisation. While no doubt working to a basic story structure, the cast members bounce off each other, thriving on their individual creativity and ideas. Some concepts are tried and quickly forgotten. Others are expanded and become consistent threads to the unfolding story.

These are sharp and smart performers who show a well-tuned perception of the comedic relationship between themselves and the audience.

They are also extremely good singers, superbly accompanied by a musical director with amazing skills.

Every good musical needs a memorable, foot-tapping song. This one was no different.

We were still singing and humming Step Right Up as we walked out the door. It was as it should have been.

Impromptunes - The Completely Improvised Musical is on January 24 and 25 at 7pm.