On Thursday, September 11th, the comedy group “Broadway’s Next Hit Musical!” performed in Scales Fine Arts Center as a part of the Secrest Artists Series. This show was by far one of the best comedies and stage performances I had seen in a while.
Perhaps the craziest thing about this performance was that the group improvised the entire show. There were no scripted lines; everything was made up on the spot. The entire show, in fact, was based on song titles written by audience members before the show.
The show began with Greg Triggs acting as the host of the award show and Eric March on the piano. Eric March improvised all the music of the show, and was perhaps the most impressive member of the stellar cast.
The first half of the show consisted of each of four improv actors, Deb Rabbai, Rob Schiffmann, Rebecca Vigil, and Robert Z Grant, selecting one of the songs from the audience, making up a musical, and then performing the song. Songs included “Toot your I thing” (Whatever that means), “Marching Band Sucks,” “My Biggest freshmen Screw Up,” and “Titus D Conarion.” The musical titles ranged from the stereotypical 80s show “Whip It” to the musical horror “Dorm of Death.”
These performances incorporated not only the song titles, but also audience input, including dance moves performed by selected members of the audience. At the end of the first act, Greg Triggs read off several of the songs that were not selected, including an inside joke amongst several membrs of the audience, which was later placed into the second act.
The second act consisted of the performance of one of the four musicals in full. For my show, the musical horror “Dorm of Death” was the musical of choice. “Dorm of Death” was the story of Griffon, who wanted to date Tally, but was rejected, so he kidnapped his entire school. The musical ended happily, with a stereotypical group performance from the entire cast and the redemption of Griffon. This musical also contained references to songs from the first act as well as other goofy comments made by the performers.
If you are looking for night of comedy, but would love it the sound of music, I would highly recommend checking out “Broadway’s Next Hit Musical!” the next time they are in town.