Theatre News

Showstopper! Improvises Musical at Ambassadors

| London's West End |

21 December 2010

Edinburgh Fringe hit Showstopper! The Improvised Musical will play Tuesday nights from 8 February  to 29 March at the Ambassadors Theatre it was today (21 December 2010) announced.

The show, which creates a brand new musical at every performance, improvised by the cast from audience suggestions, has played three years at the Edinburgh Fringe from 2008 to 2010 and finishes its three-month residency at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington tonight.

The format of the show was created by Sticking Place artistic director Adam Meggido and improviser Dylan Emery, both of whom worked closely with late theatre maverick Ken Campbell. Previous collaborations include Shall We Shog for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2005, Decor Without Production for the Royal Court and In Pursuit of Cardenio which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006. Meggido also produces an annual 50-hour Improvathon with the Sticking Place which is this year being held at Hoxton Hall in January.

Showstopper! have also today announced their improvised musicals will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 19 January 2011, following a successful half-hour edition in March this year. The radio show, like the stage version, creates an entirely new musical on every outing, with songs and story-lines created from audience suggestions of plots, titles and musical styles.

The company also produce one-off themed shows, where an entire evening is dedicated to one person’s suggestion for a story line. Whatsonstage.com commissioned the company to perform the brand new Whatsonstage.com the Musical for one night during the show’s run at the King’s Head, with a murder mystery plot chosen by our theatregoers.

The cast for the shows at the Ambassadors Theatre are Chris Ash, Duncan Walsh Atkins, Ruth Bratt, Julie Clare, Dylan Emery, Pippa Evans, James Lovelock, Sean McCann, Adam Meggido, Philip Pellew, Nigel Pilkington, Oliver Senton, Lucy Trodd and Sarah Louise Young. Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is produced by Adam Meggido, Dylan Emery and Keith Strachan and general managed by James Seabright.

Noise-makers Stomp are the regular tennants of the Ambassadors, where it transferred in 2007, having made its West End debut at the Vaudeville Theatre in September 2002. The show, which was created by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas transforms junk and clutter into a source of
rhythm and dance. The Ambassadors is also playing host to a family Christmas show with The Night Before Christmas running until Christmas eve.