“Has everything you want from a blockbuster musical – it just happens to be made up on the spot.” METRO
Spontaneous musical comedy at its finest, this is the first ever long-form improv show to have a full West End run and to be nominated and win an Olivier Award! Completely improvised and genuinely entirely different every night, this is a must-see show! The incredible ‘Showstopper! The Improvised Musical’ has extended their residency in the West End at the Cambridge Theatre for the third year with new dates added throughout 2025!
When a teacher of improvisational comedy saw a show in Canada where actors made up a “soap opera” on stage from audience ideas, it started his creative mind whirring at warp speed 12. When he taught the idea to his pupils back in the UK, some went of and formed “Austentatious”, whilst others led by Adam Meggido & Dylan Emery formed Showstoppers.
The rest is history, and history-making! In the Autumn of 2015, Showstopper! The Improvised Musical became the first longform improv show to have a full run in the West End at the Apollo Theatre and continues to play monthly at the Cambridge in London’s West End. In 2024 they were in the Top 10 best reviewed shows of entire Edinburgh Fringe – for the second year running – no mean feat in their 15th year selling out the Pleasance Grand once more!
The majority of the cast also have much acclaim with founder member Ruth Bratt being part of the famous Comedy Store Players, the longest running impro show in the country; Pippa Evans being a regular on BBC Radio 4, has toured with I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue and wrote ‘Now That’s What I Call A Musical!’ (that’s currently on UK tour).
The pilot of Hopping, a new comedy from Lucy Trodd and Susan Harrison, aired on BBC Radio 4 and Matt Cavendish appeared on this year’s Royal Variety Performance with Mischief Theatre’s ‘A Comedy About Spies’. Co-founder Adam Meggido directed the West End and Broadway hit show Peter Pan Goes Wrong. The incredibly talented West End star Miracle Chance (Roald Dahl’s The Witches at the National Theatre, Veronica Sawyer in Heathers at The Other Palace) has just joined the cast.
For those who haven’t yet experienced the live phenomenon that is ‘Showstopper! The Improvised Musical’, the show is a fully realised musical created on the spot from audience suggestions. The cast transform suggestions for settings, genres, musical styles and even the name of the show into ingenious storylines with hilarious characters. From Lin Manuel Miranda to Stephen Sondheim, via a primary school, Ancient Egypt, or a mattress shop – if the audience can suggest it, The Showstoppers will perform it. It’s hugely funny to watch.
For a chance to watch the show at the Cambridge Theatre, please go to the theatre website
Image (c) Ray Burmiston
