MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY
FESTIVAL
The Completely Improvised Musical
At Trades Hall, Music Room, Victoria St Carlton, until April 22, 2018
Star Review: **1/2
Australian act
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Review also published in Herald Sun online on Tues April 3, 2018. KH
A good musical requires a talented musician, cleverly
constructed and tunefully sung songs, and a really sharp narrative with good
dialogue and characters.
In its Completely Improvised Musical, Impromptunes
manages to do the first two items very well, but, on this night, their musical
called Hot Chocolate comes unstuck because of a shabby narrative, awkward
dialogue and inconsistent characters.
After an overture by their versatile and
inventive musician, the show’s title, provided by an
audience member, is the cue for a classic, peppy, musical theatre opening song, ‘Hot
Chocolate, Yahoo!’, sung by the cast of five.
The story is bumpy, but deals with the staff of Hot
Hot Hot Industries that makes hot chocolate, but is also a hotbed of envy,
ambition and lust.
Peter, the brown-nosing executive, sings about hot
chocolate being a metaphor for his life, and the finale is the rousing chorus, 'Life
is like hot chocolate. It's best shared with those you love.'
The songs sound like musical theatre tunes,
complete with harmonies and cheesy dance routines and, on this night, there
were plenty of love songs: a duet called ‘You and I, Me and You Together’; 'Maybe
This Is The Moment', a quartet by two couples; and 'Sometimes Love Makes You
Sweat'.
‘Trapped’ is a clever tune sung by all cast members,
and the rapid-fire, uptempo ‘Sugar Song’ is a hoot.
It's
exciting to witness singer-improvisers scrambling to create songs, story and
characters, and you'll certainly get a different show every night, with good
music and capable singers – and the narrative might be amazing on another
night.
By Kate Herbert
Cast of Hot Chocolate:
Emmet Nichols
Hollie James
Morgan Phillips
Amberly Cull
Roland Lewis
MUSICIAN
David Peake
No comments:
Post a Comment