Jonathan Hobman
Though the performance did not quite live up to it’s title, in that I remained firmly convinced that this play was not scripted, it was not without it’s charm, and it was clear that the cast had an aptitude for comedy that occasionally glinted throughout the performance.
It’s not easy to criticise improv and I'm sure the group had radically different experiences from night to night. Suffice to say on this particular night and I found that often audiences and the cast were laughing at the clumsiness of the scenes than any specific jokes, which can be half the fun of improvised comedies.
After a well needed warm up of a fairly reserved audience we were asked for a title for the night’s musical. What we got was, “Make Good (or Bad) Decisions: The Musical”. It seemed to me that such a nebulous concept would make difficult improv material and it seemed to seem to them also.
They had solid musical accompaniment with piano guitar and even a flute came out a few times.
Making songs that flow, rhyme, make sense and are compelling is a nigh impossible feat and I commend their efforts however the songs often fell on moral platitudes and repeated lines and they shone more when they were out of song and during, making more jokes and sentences that followed logically. A joke was made out of putting someone on the spot when asked to make a song.
I told myself not to compare them to PlayShop and respond to this group in it’s own right, but I think it’s worth making the comparison to acknowledge an improv group that has a few years of community history and practice and the benefit it has done them in creating smooth transitions and strategies to keeping the scenes moving in a compelling way.
It seemed like this was the group’s first or second show together which give them a slight reproach.
This was a decent effort with and there’s definitely comic talent within the cast which came through mainly during the non-musical segments when they could speak plainly.
After a well needed warm up of a fairly reserved audience we were asked for a title for the night’s musical. What we got was, “Make Good (or Bad) Decisions: The Musical”. It seemed to me that such a nebulous concept would make difficult improv material and it seemed to seem to them also.
They had solid musical accompaniment with piano guitar and even a flute came out a few times.
Making songs that flow, rhyme, make sense and are compelling is a nigh impossible feat and I commend their efforts however the songs often fell on moral platitudes and repeated lines and they shone more when they were out of song and during, making more jokes and sentences that followed logically. A joke was made out of putting someone on the spot when asked to make a song.
I told myself not to compare them to PlayShop and respond to this group in it’s own right, but I think it’s worth making the comparison to acknowledge an improv group that has a few years of community history and practice and the benefit it has done them in creating smooth transitions and strategies to keeping the scenes moving in a compelling way.
It seemed like this was the group’s first or second show together which give them a slight reproach.
This was a decent effort with and there’s definitely comic talent within the cast which came through mainly during the non-musical segments when they could speak plainly.
