Ali James Archives - North West End UK

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

13Mar

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

After taking time to catch up on sleep and sustenance, it is comforting to reflect on what a special event the London Improvathon is. I covered the whole show but had breaks to grab a couple of hours sleep and to eat, so you could consider me to be a lightweight in comparison with these improvathoners. For cast and audience, there is an invisible bond that forms over the fifty hours, the commitment to perform, or to watch the equivalent of twenty-five shows back-to-back, binds the two together, and the final bows are met with celebration. For those who do not wish to commit to fifty hours, there was an option to buy a two-hour episode ticket. The history of the Improvathon goes back to 1993, when the first Canadian Improvathon took place, and then some years later Ken...

Magic Goes Wrong – Sheffield Lyceum

What a hilarious evening the audience at the Sheffield Lyceum had, as Mischief Theatre presented ‘Magic Goes Wrong’. Magical mayhem with two hours of silliness and laugh-out-loud moments, Co-writers Henry Lewis, Jonathon Sayer and Henry Shields collaborated with the legendary Penn and Teller to offer the next instalment of the … Goes Wrong series. A perfect vehicle, to be honest, as who doesn’t watch a Magic show with a little bit of them, hoping something does indeed go wrong! Or, we gasp at what appears to go wrong does actually redeem itself in gloriously spectacular fashion. The set resembled a very glitzy, sparkly version of The Royal Variety Show/ Live at the London Palladium mixed with the most elaborate gameshow you could imagine. Magic Goes Wrong is not quite the heav...

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical – Garrick Theatre

Showstopper did not allow lockdown to stop their creativity, they have continued to produce online improvised shows, in fact North West End UK have reviewed some of these (see our website). For those who have somehow missed the artistry that is musical improvisation here is a quick summary. Showstopper use suggestions made by the audience to make up a musical from scratch in front of your eyes. In a normal musical production, it can take years for a production to make it to the stage, with the services of a lyricist, a composer, producer, director, actors, etc, etc! Showstopper does all of this in one night – the performers multi-task and roll all of this into one very sleek team. Ring, ring, the red phone shrills, and we know it’s going to be Cameron asking the...