Monday August 4th 2025
The cast of Showstopper: The Improvised Musical. Photo by Ray Burmiston
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Showstopper: The Improvised Musical allows the audience to make an entirely new show, using Showstopper’s talented cast to craft a brand new musical with every night being a different story.
The unique performance is fully improvised, taking suggestions from the crowd on what setting the show will be based around, what three popular musicals the show’s songs will resemble and the name of the final musical. Creating a unique performance tailored exclusively for each night.
Returning for its 16th year at the festival, the show is performed every evening at 5:20pm in Pleasants Grand venue. It begins with front-man Dylan Emery explaining to the crowd that he needs your help as his boss is demanding a brand new musical, engaging with the crowd and asking for audience members to shout out suggestions.
On the night I attended, the final musical was based in an old-timey 1916 chocolate shop in Oklamahoma, featured songs in similar style to Mama Mia, being called ‘Cocoa-kla-homa’.
It began with Dylan taking a phone call, then frantically explaining to the audience that he needs their help. Once the initial plot, setting and style is agreed, the lights dim and the cast members come onto the stage, starting strong and making you shocked that this show is improvised.
Despite other crowd suggestions being better than the final agreed theme (with some being inappropriate), ‘Cocoa-kla-homa’ ended up being an incredibly entertaining show, with the audience on the edge of their seats from both the plot and the astonishment that it was getting made on the spot.
With the cast making up the musical plot as it goes, this made for funny moments with some cast members making mistakes that only added to the homour of the show. Occasionally, mid-show, Dylan Emery, would stop the performance and intervene, giving directions to the cast and taking further suggestions from the crowd. He engaged with the audience incredibly well, making jokes at audience members and en-couraging more participation.
This show is one that is not prepared or rehearst in advance, purely relying on the talented crew members to create a funny and entertaining musical surrounding themes and a setting they just found out about.
The creativity of the show’s overall idea and the cast’s talent and ability to improvise a show so well was impressive. The cowds reaction, giving the cast a standing ovation at the end, represented how good the production is, with not one dull moment throughout the performance. The comfort of the performers on stage made you wonder how they did it.
Being Fringe veterans, Showstoppers and their incredible cast are providing both an entertaining show and a creative idea to this year’s festival, making improvised theatre look rehearsed.
5/5 stars, must see during this year’s festival.
