Imagine a musical that is completely made up from start to finish. Its title and plot, setting and theme, as well as every note and lyric. Showstopper! is that very thing, a stage production that really shouldn’t work but absolutely delivers on every level. It might just be the most fun we’ve had out at the theatre in ages. Our Showstopper musical review in full is below.
Conceived back in 2008 following with runs all over the UK; a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe as well as a sell-out West End run where it picked up a prestigious Olivier Award for best entertainment and family show, Showstopper! is an absolute must for musical fans.
The production kicks off with an unnamed writer taking to the stage, an ominous red phone ringing stage left, on the other end and unheard ‘producer’ asking for a new musical for a theatre that has gone dark. The writer needs our help and immediately takes to the eager crowd for suggestions for a new show to be conceived this very night – in our case, on Halloween. Asking the crowd to raise their hands, the writer asks first for a setting, multiple locations suggested by the audience. A stuck elevator, ‘Winnipeg’ and a graveyard put forward, the latter settled on before moving onto the title – ‘2 Birds, One Tombstone’ decided upon by a young fan close to the stage. With this, the production is off to a flyer with just four known musicals needed for the overall feel of the new show. Our audience decide upon Les Miserables, Amelie The Musical, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Bugsy Malone the ones we all decide upon and then, the musical properly kicks off with Act One.
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Five performers take to the stage, along with two musicians to our immediate right, in this case made up of a keyboard player and percussionist. The production design is kept to a minimum, the performers having a simple screen to duck behind and a movable raised plinth to morph into any inanimate object they desire.
What follows is two very tight acts, both running at precisely 45 minutes in length full of continued audience participation, our writer constantly interrupting proceedings to heighten the drama and inject new curveballs towards our talented performers. A stand out in our performance was a sequence where three tombstones were put before the actors – actually simple chairs – where three inhabitants of said graves were to come to life and present themselves to a musical number, one which would have a specific vibe, again chosen by the audience. This one had the feel of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a suggestion from an audience member right at the back of the auditorium gleefully shouting it out without hesitation when asked.
Our Showstopper musical review will never do justice of what we’ve witnessed. This is unbelievable stuff. You’d think there were audience plants or stooges. There is not. You’d think the actors have an inkling of what they are going to sing about, prompted in some way by The Writer, all of the way through. Not the case – in fact, during the finale of our show a fly was seen quite clearly buzzing around the stage and, during a heartfelt moment, two of the actors immediately started to sing about the thing.
I was spellbound by this work of absolute genius from the, my face aching from smiling all of the way through. I constantly looked for the folds, any smoke or mirrors, striving to find just how they were pulling this off so wonderfully, but my missions was one that would amount to nothing as this really is something that is constructed every night from absolutely nothing. Its absolutely spellbinding stuff, a concept so utterly ambitious that all involved pull off with seeming absolute ease, all of them lapping up every second and having the time of their lives, performing for a crowd – every single one of us – willing them on every step of the way.
Unmissable. A sheer delight from start to finish and unlike anything you’ll see ever again. Quite literally.
Showstopper musical review from the performance at Lighthouse, Poole on 31st October 2024. The show is touring in 2025 and plays selected dates at London’s Cambridge Theatre. More info on the official Showstopper! The Musical website.
