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| IN THE PRESS |
"Opening Night: The Improvised Musical takes it's cues from the audience. Though
this sounds like a recipe for disaster, the members of the group (Bill Chott, Shulie
Cowen, Dave Cox, Wayman Barnes, Derek Miller, Norm Thoeming, Paul
Vaillancourt) juggle those ill-at-ease bedfellows, spontaneity and control, with
mind-boggling panache. The show is hardly spectator participatory; a random
shouted-out phrase from the audience is all that's needed to set this comedy machine
in motion. Granted, Opening Night is not seamless but that's part of the fun. In fact,
it's those lulls in which you can practically see the actors' synapses firing as their
thoughts vector off into 10 directions that most tickle the crowd. On the night I
attended, the cast repeatedly burst into song over bootleg gelato, monkeys and
haircuts (Allen Simpson's bubbly organ-vamping really helps drive the narrative), but
it's pointless to discuss content here since each performance is unique. The show
seems just a little too slick to be completely improvised, as billed. Silly thought that.
Devotees of the stage would never pull such a con...would they?" 09/03/99
this sounds like a recipe for disaster, the members of the group (Bill Chott, Shulie
Cowen, Dave Cox, Wayman Barnes, Derek Miller, Norm Thoeming, Paul
Vaillancourt) juggle those ill-at-ease bedfellows, spontaneity and control, with
mind-boggling panache. The show is hardly spectator participatory; a random
shouted-out phrase from the audience is all that's needed to set this comedy machine
in motion. Granted, Opening Night is not seamless but that's part of the fun. In fact,
it's those lulls in which you can practically see the actors' synapses firing as their
thoughts vector off into 10 directions that most tickle the crowd. On the night I
attended, the cast repeatedly burst into song over bootleg gelato, monkeys and
haircuts (Allen Simpson's bubbly organ-vamping really helps drive the narrative), but
it's pointless to discuss content here since each performance is unique. The show
seems just a little too slick to be completely improvised, as billed. Silly thought that.
Devotees of the stage would never pull such a con...would they?" 09/03/99