You’ve got to be in with a good audience for Showstopper! That’s not for reasons of surround-sound atmospherics but because it is the punters who make the show. Literally.
This improvised musical, which has been a fixture on the theatre scene for more than a decade and won an Olivier Award for best entertainment in 2016, is powered solely by audience suggestions for setting, name, style and much more. Previous flashes of audience inspiration have resulted in Sinky Boots, located on a sinking Cold War submarine.
The night I saw Showstopper! the chosen idea of Tennessee Waltz, set in Nashville, Tennessee, looked as though it was going to provide slim pickings for the team of six performers and three musicians, and so it proved in a meandering first half.
The piece, created and directed by Adam Meggido and Dylan Emery, cried out for more quick-change in the plot via snap audience interventions.
And yet come the second half something marvellous began to happen, as the tale of an illicit lesbian romance set in a garage — pronounced “gay-rage” — started to blossom.
The Come From Away-esque number — this show was one of four whose styles we asked to be included, along with the almost obligatory Hamilton — Welcome To The Wedding (Of Two Ladies Of The Town) was a hoot.
At the finale everyone was clapping and singing along and I left humming happily.
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