MTW’s Improv Musical: The Review

Having never seen one of Musical Theatre Warwick’s Improv Musicals before, I was extremely excited to see the infamous production. I had heard a lot of hype around the show in the lead up to the evening with people telling me ‘you’ll love it’. Walking into the Arts Centre Studio I could hear audience members chatting about what themes they were going to put forward and how they were going to make things difficult for the cast, which actually made me rather anxious for them. The pianist was playing some well-known tunes from Avenue Q (MTW’s upcoming studio show) to The Little Mermaid. Audience members were getting involved from the outset by singing along, creating the perfect atmosphere for the evening.

As the house lights went down, Abhi Subramaniam was welcomed to the stage with huge applause and whooping. His ‘Welcome!’ was well received and gave audience members who hadn’t been before, including me, a sense of excitement and what was about to happen – I was ready to go! As the cast were welcomed onto stage I could see how anxious they were, yet their enthusiasm was incredible as audience members were asked where they wanted the musical to be set. As the houselights went up an array of strange suggestions occurred; the moon, a nude beach, the Kremlin, but the audiences’ favourite, following a whooping contest, was Ancient Rome. The cast immediately began to discuss. Next up we decided which characters we wanted to appear throughout the musical. I thought people might go for the traditional Roman characters of Caesar and Brutus, but no, Shania Twain and Pinocchio were the two favourites. It was interesting to watch the cast as these characters were discussed, some look puzzled. One of the cast, Lani Strange, later admitted to me that she didn’t actually know who Shania Twain was, yet her portrayal was spot on! Others looked riddled with excitement, but it was the look of dedication which inspired me. They all looked ready to prove they could make a musical out of anything at the audiences’ beck and call. So, the musical ‘Man, I Feel Like A Roman’ (I know, that in itself is amazing) was about to commence.

The musical started and I was instantly impressed by Joe Thompson-Oubari who took the initiative to be a news reporter, claiming that Caesar had been killed- hello plot! The cast continued to amaze me with their sudden creations of music and text. I especially enjoyed Andrew King’s comic references to the fact that they were making it up as they went along. Whilst acting out a scenario where Joe was playing Caesar, Andrew turned to him saying ‘it’s not hard, you can make it up as you go along!’ I have to admit there wasn’t a single moment during the performance when I didn’t have a smile on my face. I was also incredibly impressed by the audience’s reactions, the support was magnificent with huge applause after every song, witty joke or reference.

I also have to compliment the entire cast on their singing ability. Branagh Crealock-Ashurst’s beautiful tone whilst portraying Pinocchio was breath taking, whilst Danielle Sharp’s incredibly elegant voice softened the comic tone as she sang a beautiful number of wanting to find her son. Matt Connell’s acting was faultless, with his ability to think of come backs to jokes being incredibly witty. Whilst Lani Strange’s portrayal of Shania Twain was comedy gold. I was impressed by the whole show and could not write a bad word about it. I cried with laughter the entire time! So bravo MTW, you’ve managed to amaze me yet again. I’m already looking forward to the next show so until then, thank you.