A red ‘bat’ phone rings and lights up. Our MC for the evening picks it up and answers with one word: Cameron. And so we’re off with Showstopper, the improvised musical’s one thousandth performance.
The conceit is that ‘Cameron’ has called demanding a new hit musical. And he wants it tonight. “But I’ve literally given you 999 other musicals already,” says our MC. Fortunately, he tells Cameron, a room full of musical theatre experts is on hand to help. That’s us. And so the audience is invited to come up with the setting for the new show along with some musical styles and a title. In fact this produced one of the best ad libs of the night when the audience member who suggested the setting should be a Yorkshire soup factory in 1882 was asked, why 1882? “It was a good year for soup!” he replied, setting the bar for the cast.
