REVIEW: The Big Sing 2025- Musical Improv Festival Day 2

The extended review of all three shows was getting too unwieldy, so I am breaking this mega review of the Big Sing 2025 into 3 parts, sorted by day.

Day One is here.
You are reading Day Two
Day Three is not yet available.

This is the schedule:

THE BIG SING- DAY TWO

 

ACT ONE: THE CLOUD SHOWCASE

The  first show was, as it was the night before, a showcase of performers from a workshop.  This one, taught by festival co-director Ella Galt and house pianist/musical director Joanna Kucharzyk, showcases the participants of the group and their focus on ensemble and choir singing tips and techniques.

The work was good, although with 12 differently leveled participants on stage who had just met on that day, there were definitely some ups and downs in the performances and some crossed signals about what was going to happen next.

A lot of it came from audience suggestions, and then similar to the BIG Musical the night before, each participant had a solo, and then got supported and repeated by other people.

 

I could see from my front row vantage point a couple of times when the director Ella was whispering stage directions and gesturing to the group, mostly in terms of reminding them to step forward and support.  It’s difficult to do, because you don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

In some ways, I would have preferred to see that on the stage.  No need to hide the impromptu nature of this work.

Once again, Joanna the showcase musical director did a fantastic job holding everyone together.

 

ACT TWO: MC HAMMERSMITH

The next act in the mainstage show was the director of the previous day’s workshop Improvised Hamilton, Will Naameh.  Performing as MC Hammersmith, the best rapper ever to come from Middle class London, Naameh was funny, sharp, and clearly has been doing improv and rapping for quite some time.  He took words from the audience including squirrel, box cubicle, Catalunya, Paperweight, onomatopoeia, Massachusetts, and a Catalan word that may or may not mean Pistachio.  (I just looked it up, and it should be pistatxo)But that is not the word he incorporates.

He also went through the audience, rapping about what was in people’s pockets, pulled a couple out of the audience (that happened to be co-director of the Festival Kiva Murphy’s parents) and rapped about how they met, and then pulled a man out of the audience and rapped about their perfect Valentine date.

He was infinitely clever, fast, funny, polished, and completely in charge.  My one criticism is that all of his rap beats were straight ahead 4/4 time.  I would love to hear him change the rhythm up, go with a reggae style, or a house style, or change it up a bit.  By the third rap, the rhythm had gotten a little predictable.  That doesn’t take away from his improv brilliance.  I just want to see it infiltrate every part of his act.

 

ACT THREE: LIGHTS UP FROM KALEIDOSCOPE

The third act of the show was an original musical from Berlin based group Kaleidoscope.  This group of 7 had something no other group to date has brought to the table:  A percussionist.  They had two accompanists- a piano player and a percussionist, and they made good use of both.  It really added an extra layer of dimension.

 

 

 

They took a “type of place” from the audience and ended up with “Hell”. Probably a good bet in any adult crowd actually.  They then proceeded to weave a story about the Devil’s third daughter Lillian, who didn’t LIKE torturing people, and wanted to go back to earth, and then gets stuck on earth with a clueless love interest Mercurio.  It turns out they wind up in Berlin, where people like being tortured!  But alas they don’t like good old fashioned torture.  Fortunately, Daddy (the Devil) and his two other daughters (twins Tamara and Glamara, comically trying to be #1 daughters) rescue her/capture her, and there’s a reconciliation at the end.  The comic acting and improvised songs throughout the show were excellent.  My favorite was a song by the Devil how he wants everything to be “Consensual”.

 

The video above gives a good taste of the show.  The singing was very confident, especially the lead actress playing Lillian (not seen above), who clearly knew her way around a stock musical or three. The plotting was not very intricate, and played with the standard musical theatre tropes and archetypes.

After the show, I realized the show reminded me a bit of commedia dell’arte, where characters improvised constantly, but they played the same character throughout.  I began to wonder if that were true in this troupe, and tried to imagine what it would be if the character playing Daddy were Lillian, and etc.  The thing is with improv, although you have never done this before, you often play to your strengths and what you know already works, so while the actor playing Daddy (Taylor Lamontagne) may not have played Daddy before, it’s a good bet they play the villain/heavy most of the time.  Same with the two people playing sidekicks– they were great as sidekicks, and because they are great at it, they continue to work on that.

THE LATE SHOW: VISITAS IMPRO

The Late show was a group from Palma de Mallorca called Visitas Impro.  Performing in 3 languages, they had a troupe of 4- a pianist, a guitarist, and two actors.  They took as their prompt from the audience “Something you do in your household”. Which tonight was “killing fruitflies”.

This group had an acting/mime first feel.  The show was narrated at the beginning by the guitarist, who then later ceded control of the story to his other players.  They improvised songs and music, but there was a fair amount of mime and absurdity as they tried to keep all of the story straight.  (Which involved a girl coming back from her sojourn with the FBI, and she couldn’t tell anyone that she was a spy, but then she was uncovered, and hilarity and murder ensued.

It was a fun show, and a good way to end the night.