Review: MTW’s Improv Musical

What is so brilliant about Musical Theatre Warwick’s (MTW) Improv Musical is that it really could have gone in any direction. The six brave actors were made to sit and watch as the audience were left with the responsibility of choosing every aspect of a musical that they were about to stage before our very eyes. So what happens when you give such a responsibility to an audience full of university students?

I’ll tell you exactly what happens. A musical entitled “Red Blood Cells” located inside the human body featuring characters such as The Queen of Hearts and An Unqualified Surgeon. Bizarre? Completely. Especially when you consider that had another audience member’s idea been more popular, the musical would have instead taken place in “a land where everything is edible”.

You would perhaps forgive the MTW cast at this point for feeling somewhat tentative, if not completely terrified. Nonetheless, a few words were exchanged amongst themselves and within a blink of an eye they were off with their first musical number, “Bodylicious”, led by two evil scientists who were on a mission to find out everything about the human body and take over the world. Whether it was intended that these scientists were to be dumb and dumber or not, it was a masterstroke given the lack of preparation time. In fact, it was easy even at this early stage to forget that the majority of this was being made up on the spot.

As further hits including “Entering the human body” and “Pump, pump through the body” were being created, the cast members were gradually being introduced to the crowd in twos, with the two unqualified surgeons following the scientists. The surgeons were being prepared to be miniaturized by the scientists to go on a tour through the human body. Whilst there were, understandably, several times in which the two were not on the same wavelength, these moments did not detract from the spectacle at all; if anything they only warmed the characters to the audience.

One of the highlights, for me, was the introduction of The Queen of Hearts, accompanied by a solitary and graceful Red Blood Cell, sliding through the heart majestically every now and then. From their very first song, “Pump through the body”, the wit and energy of The Queen of Hearts had the audience captivated, and his performance throughout turned the musical into something that little bit more special.

As mentioned, the scenes in the musical were comprised of these pairings of characters, and perhaps it would have been nice to see a little bit more variation. That said, the chemistry between the pairs of characters was undeniably strong. This chemistry, particularly between The Queen of Hearts and the Red Blood Cell, was noted by the audience, and it came as no surprise when the cast decided that the pairs would all end up falling in love with each other. To get to this from a suggestion of a musical located inside the human body, though. Wonderful.

Stand-out moments worth mentioning included a rap entitled “Keep Bleeding Red Blood Cells” by the Queen of Hearts (as suggested by the audience, of course) and several off-the-cuff references to ‘going south’ inside the human body as well as the Queen of Hearts questioning whether it was really the surgeons’ first time inside the human body, because his ‘touch was so good’.

A mention must also go to the excellent pianist and how he synced so well with the cast throughout the show is a mystery to me, but I suspect that without such expert timing and skill, the show wouldn’t have had the energy it did.

Overall, a thoroughly entertaining and clever performance. I must confess, I still find myself shamelessly singing along to the words of “Entering the human body”.