Impromptunes: The Completely Improvised Musical

This year I finally decided to take the plunge and put my hand up to review some of the shows in the 2014 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Spoilt for choice I selected those of interest which I was able to attend.

The prospect of performers improvising their own musical was just too tempting. How could they do it?

In a word, brilliantly!

The audience were asked for a title of the show and came up with “Ice Cream Has No Bones”. We then had an overture, based on the tune “Greensleeves” (the Mr Whippy theme) and the musical began.

It was amazing. The opening number was “Sunday at Three” when the ice cream van traditionally arrived in the street; then we had the girl whose vegan mother wouldn’t let her eat ice cream, finally breaks out and becomes an ice cream addict. Then there are the rogue ice cream operators who produce ice cream with lamb to finish with the finale “Ice Cream Has No Bones!”

What particularly amazed me was that it was as though the performers had been rehearsing this particular musical for months. There was no searching for a word to rhyme, there were harmonies, chorus echoing the soloist and the usual twists in the plot.

And it was clean! Something not usually associated with the Comedy Festival.

It was hilarious and very clever and I’m sure many in the audience would have been tempted to return to see how the next show panned out.

A delightful inclusion in the Festival. Check out their web site www.impromptunes.com.au.

Graham Ford