I had the pleasure of watching AdLibretto at The Little Theatre By The Park as part of the Chesham fringe festival last year. As a result, I made a beeline to watch them again this year. The premise of their act is creating an improvised musical, taking suggestions from the audience and spinning a story and songs which have never been performed before and will never be performed again. The theme is usually around people thinking of what they do now for a job and contrasting it with what they wanted to do or imagined they would do when they were children.
This particular performance the musical focused on the work of Chris, now a psychiatrist but when he was a child he dreamed of being an inventor. Inspired by the musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang he wanted to create all sorts of wacky and weird inventions including flying machines. From this small spark of inspiration a full 45 minute musical was born.
AdLibretto were funny, inventive and spontaneous. they looked like they were having fun and were willing to belt out a tune with gusto.
There are always moments of messiness in this sort of performance. There were lyrics which didn’t rhyme, non sequiturs, dead ends, forgotten character names etc., but none of that really matters when the heart of the show is finding the funny and delivering a coherent story which genuinely entertains. Giving each other a bit more space so there are fewer crashed lines, interrupted gags and blurred melodies would push the act into something even more sparkling.
AdLibretto are going from strength to strength and have three or four shows a month lined up for the rest of this year, mostly taking place in London which is only a short tube right away from this friendly Chesham audience. So if you’re interested in catching them in their future performances, do you check out their website for dates and details.
No comments:
Post a Comment