An Improbable Musical is a 90-minute improvised musical full of glorious live music, improbable characters, uplifting songs, and magical puppetry made from the unlikeliest of materials. This is theatre as live as it gets.
What’s the show about? No one knows till the audience provides a couple of suggestions and the music begins…
Masters of improvisation and comedy, Lee Simpson and Josie Lawrence are joined by musical impro legends Ruth Bratt and Niall Ashdown with beautiful puppetry from Aya Nakamura and Clarke Joseph-Edwards.
An Improbable Musical seeks to expand the vocabulary of what we think improvisation can do by incorporating puppetry and material animation, movement and music in a fully improvised show. It could be hilarious or heart-breaking, anarchic or eerily atmospheric, but it is definitely essential viewing for anyone who likes their theatre as live as it can be.
Lee Simpson, co-artistic director of Improbable said: “An Improbable Musical is different from most improv shows because it’s not an improv version of a well-known genre. This show starts from nowhere, could end up anywhere and has no idea how it is going to get there. That means each show is truly made by the people on stage and how they respond moment to moment. Even by improv standards this is a high wire act with no safety net.”
The musical devisor and director is Christopher Ash (Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, The Borrowers, MAC) who also performs with versatile musicians Max Gittings on flute, Joley Cragg on percussion and Juliet Colyer on cello.
The show is designed by E Mallin Parry (Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Globe; Rotterdam. West End). The associate director is Angela Clerkin (Moll and the Future Kings, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse). Lighting design is by Colin Grenfell (Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), Black Watch West End), sound design by Oscar Thompson (Rob Brydon Songs and Stories, UK Tour) and Will Thompson (Salome, Southwark Playhouse), and movement direction by Pauline Mayers (What I Told You, UK tour).
There will be audio described, BSL interpreted, captioned and relaxed performances across the run. See venue websites for details.
You have to be there to see it, and it will only happen once.
Hackney Empire, Mare Street, E8 1EJ from 21st – 26th October. Times: 7.30pm; Sun 23rd 2.30pm. Admission: £22.15 – £34.15.
Booking: 020 8985 2424 – https://hackneyempire.co.uk/
