By Arran
Available until: I think it’s available till 29th April.
The latest Showstopper musical is set somewhere I can’t tell you about because it would give away which story the Showstoppers chose but it is a really interesting place to set a musical and it was really good.
By Alba
Available until: 30th April. There’s another livestream tomorrow at 7.30pm.
I think improvising is brilliant. It’s so much cleverer than just remembering stuff which other people made up and it means you never have to learn any lines. I’m going to be the prime minister and that’s a bit like improvising because I’ll get asked loads of questions I don’t know the answer to and loads of questions I don’t want to tell anyone the answer to so if I get bored of ruling the country maybe I’ll be a showstopper because they rule too!
By Sophie
Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/showstopper-the-improvised-musical-livestream-tickets-143134658617?aff=OC (There are two shows on the same page. If you only want to see this one, make sure you don’t rent the 26.2.21 edition by mistake. Both are worth seeing, but renting the wrong show can be one of the most annoying things ever. And I should know.)
Available until: 3rd April
The incredibly-talented Showstoppers return for their second show in two days and it’s definitely one of their best. Two ideas suggested by the audience at the start set the scene for this exciting and emotional musical, full of twists and turns with one or two tantrums as well.
By Cal
Available until: I’m not sure they said, but the video is usually available for a couple of days.
The Showstoppers are back with another hilarious and extraordinary improvised show. Once more, four intrepid Showstoppers put themselves into the hands of their audience and I don’t think they regretted it. The audience certainly didn’t.
By Emma
Available until: Saturday 6th
February
I always thought the Showstoppers were
good but I think this might be their best ever. It was one of my dream
Showstopper line ups, the audience came up with a great story idea and I really
enjoyed the music.
In case you don’t know the format, the
Showstoppers improvise musicals from suggestions from the audience. They
usually do this in a theatre but obviously they haven’t been able to do that so
they’ve been doing livestreams with suggestions coming from youtube chat. The
audience get to suggest things like the main story of the musical, the title of
the musical (this is chosen at the start of Act 2), new plot ideas, locations
for scenes and lots of songs in different musical styles.
By Megan
Available until: 29th
December 2020
The Showstoppers are so clever. I
think if they were given all the ideas in advance and given a day to turn it
all into a musical, I think that would be very clever. But they make it all up
in the moment and their musicals are always good and interesting.
By Aashiq
Available until: Unconfirmed but it’s usually available for
48 hours so that would be Sunday 1st November at 7.30.
Can we just take a moment to salute these talented people?
Maybe not literally, saluting your computer probably does look weird and we
wouldn’t want it to get used to it. My laptop and I have a very comfortable
relationship where it stops working and deletes things and I call it names and
I don’t really see any need to change that. But the Showstoppers are very
different from computers. If you ask the Showstoppers to do something, they
actually do it. No matter how impossible it seems. You wouldn’t catch a
computer behaving like that. At the very least, it’ll want to spend some time
thinking about it.
By Alan
Available until: 25th October 2020
I’m really glad I watched this because before tonight I
really didn’t believe these musicals were improvised. The performers were just
too good. I didn’t believe it was possible to improvise songs in any style and
make up lyrics which rhymed and scanned and sing harmonies. I thought it was
all a trick.
By Louise
Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/showstopper-the-improvised-musical-livestream-tickets-121758513993?aff=SSwebsite
(there are only a few hours left to
watch this one, but there are two more you can book)
Available until: Sunday 18th October 7.30pm
I really enjoyed this. I knew the performers would be really
impressive because I’ve seen last week’s show and I also know what a good reputation
the Showstoppers have, but I wasn’t expecting them to produce such a good
musical. It must be really difficult making up any kind of musical on the spot,
especially when the audience (who were online) keep throwing new ideas at them.
By Imogen
Link: You can’t have the youtube link because it’s an
unlisted stream for people who have PAID. You can book tickets here for the
archived performance I’m talking about or for live performances in the future. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/showstopper-the-improvised-musical-livestream-tickets-121758513993?aff=SSwebsite
£9.50 or £6.50 for a single musical, £25 for the 3 remaining musicals.
Available until: the end of 11th October 2020. And
there will be a new one on Friday for the next three weeks.
Showstoppers is usually performed to a live audience
but because the Government are such twits (I would rather spell twit with an a
but I’m not allowed) the actors have to go on youtube and take suggestions from
the live chat. The host chose his favourite suggestions and told them to the
four actors, who chose their favourite from the host’s selection.
I’m not going to tell you what the audience came up with
because that would be totally against the spirit of Showstoppers. You should be
surprised when it happens just like the people who watched it live. (Or the
people who had to watch it later on youtube because it was Family Quiz Night.
Megan won. She usually does. When I was ten I knew a lot about the important
things like musicals and hot boys but Megan knows all kinds of boring stuff
like towns in Bedfordshire. Why would she need to know that? Bedfordshire must
be at least fifty miles away and the only place worth visiting is the Milton
Keynes Theatre. Unless that’s in Buckinghamshire. But who cares? I don’t need
to know things like that. That’s what chauffeurs are for.)
But I will tell you a few things about tonight’s improvised
musical.
It was set somewhere that would be difficult to put onstage
but not impossible.
They sang songs in the style of three musicals. One has been
in the West End since forever. One arrived quite recently. One had been there
for a while but it would have closed by now even if the coronavirus hadn’t
ruined our lives. The improvised songs are really good because the music and
lyrics are a lot like the musical which they’re inspired by.
They also had to do a big number in a style you don’t
usually find in musicals and they did a good job with that too.
I don’t think any of the songs were true showstoppers. This
is more a musical for admiring the insane talent of the performers than
admiring the story and the music. But the songs are still very good. Just don’t
expect a new Defying Gravity. Or not in this musical. If you want a new
Defying Gravity you can always book a future performance and suggest a song in
the style of Defying Gravity.
The audience had to suggest titles for the musicals in the
interval, the host chose his favourites and the performers made the final
choice. I think they made a very good choice. I would have chosen exactly the
same thing.
The four actors play lots of different roles. Jonathan Ainscough,
Ruth Bratt, Susan Harrison (who also appeared in These Folk, another
improvised show, which Jack reviewed) and Adam Megiddo and they are very
versatile. They all have great voices especially Susan. She has really nice
hair too. They can sing in every style they were asked to sing in. They’re all
very good at acting and they are very good at accents especially Ruth. The men
are very good too and they’re quite hot so I was happy.
Some people are very suspicious of anything that’s
improvised. Especially when it’s this good. It is possible they planned
it all in advance and they had friends in the youtube chat. But I don’t think
they did. Even if they did I don’t think that really matters very much. When
you buy a ticket for a musical you pay money to see talented performers doing
their job and that’s what happens in Showstoppers. You can’t prove it is
completely improvised and that the ideas thrown at them are completely new but
you can prove that the performers are very talented people because a lot of
actors wouldn’t have the vocal and dramatic range to sing in all these styles even
if they spent a year rehearsing. It’s totally natural to wonder but you’re not
going to work out the truth from watching the show so just enjoy the show.
That’s what audiences are supposed to do.
By Jack
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyxi6Szbr-o&feature=emb_logo
Available until: no idea
I’d like to go to an improvised show. As soon as they ask
for audience participation I’ll think of something impossible for them. Like if
they asked me what mundane thing I’d done today I’d tell them I did a poo. Even
if I didn’t. It’s not like they can check, is it? Then I’d sit back and wait to
see if they go with the motion. I personally think most people do a great
impression of a poo. With some people all you have to do is mention poo and
they flush. And that was joke number two. Just dropping it in there. Yes I am
talking ****.
