NEWTON DAILY NEWS
Pam Rogers - 04/18/16
I have always admired people who could perform improv scenes. In high school speech, I watched my brother and fellow teammates draw scenarios out of a hat and make the viewers laugh. It was impressive to watch.
I was even more impressed when I watched professional actors give a 90 minute musical performance at the Temple for Performing Arts Tuesday in Des Moines completely unscripted. The cast of “Broadway’s Next H!t Musical” gave a delightful performance that had me laughing out loud. I had heard of such shows before, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to attend one until now.
The premise of the show was the improvisational actors make up songs to some of Broadway’s up-and-coming musicals. The song titles all come from the audience — we were asked to write down suggestions as we entered the theater.
There were four actors and an emcee. Each actor took their turn with the “Phoney” nominated song from their new musical. Everything was made up on the spot, and they did a great job.
My favorite song was “Water Mel O N” more for the hilarity than anything else. It tookthe actor, Matt Giroveanua full minute to realize the paper actually said “watermelon,” but here’s where the nature of the improv show comes into play. Because he read it as “Water Mel O N,” he was stuck with that pronunciation and led to his “A New World” musical that involved an alien race who loved fruit.
The winner of the award was “You’re Only 59 Once,” an upbeat tune about a man exploring his wild side before hitting the big 6-0. Actor Rob Schiffmann gave us this tune from the show “A Jump Called Bunge.” This guy had the best voice and came up with some really funny lyrics, so it was well deserved that it was the audience’s choice.
After the winner was chosen, the whole cast then performed the musical complete with another rendition of the winning song. It was fun to see the crazy things the cast came up with. The actors worked well together, listening to one another, and taking cues from each other to create the most entertaining show possible. So if you ever get the chance to attend an improv comedy show, I highly recommend it.
My week at the theater was not over. On Friday, I was able to go to the beloved musical “Annie” at the Des Moines Civic Center. The show was only in town for the weekend, but it has been a show I’ve wanted to see on stage for quite awhile.
The orphan girls were the highlight of the show. It was fun to see such a talented group of young ladies. When they sang, “It’s A Hard Knock Life,” I was hooked.
The whole production was fantastic, with a lot of lively song and dance numbers to bring the classic story to life. I thought the ensemble cast really brought the story together; each and everyone was on point in every role they enacted.