I've heard rumors of a musical improv group performing weekends at a piano store in Orem. It sounded shady. Kinda like playing craps after hours in a furniture store. I was concerned I might get arrested. But then I heard they were performing at the Covey Center for the Performing Arts. That sounded LEGIT! So, on a sunny and warm Friday evening I did something unspeakable: I went to downtown Provo.
There were a couple of performances at the Covey that night. Some local theater group was performing "Mary Poppins" on the main stage. So, there were a lot of women wandering around in period costume searching for their parasols. Our tickets indicated that "Improv Broadway" was playing in the black box theater. We made our way up to the second floor and found the black box auditorium. As I walked in, I was beginning to think the tickets had been misprinted. It was resembling more of a black ops site than black box. We wandered around a bit more and discovered that the black box was under construction. What a relief to know I wasn't going to be waterboarded. They had moved the party to the dance studio.
It was a small crowd but that made it more intimate. The first half of the show consisted of the cast (Maddy, Jake, Sam and Sam. Really? Two Sams?) taking suggestions from the audience and doing warm up games. For example, one of the games was called "deleted scenes." They would take suggestions from the audience for a movie that they wanted to see them perform deleted scenes from. One audience member described an awkward date he'd been on years before. He'd taken a young lady from Mexico to see "Spanglish." (Good call, dude.) That got me thinking. I'm from Canada. I wanted to see deleted scenes from "Canaglish." But, they reminded me that's not really a movie.
As the cast continued asking for suggestions, I couldn't contain my eagerness to participate. I think they were getting tired of my "heckling." Hey, kids. If you don't want me to answer, stop asking me questions. :D
The second half was where the show really took off. To my delight, they improvised a musical version of "Canaglish!" It was great. One small thing. One of the cast members has lived with a Canadian for all but one year of her life. Yet her Canadian accent sounded suspiciously like she came from Minnesota or was raised by Sarah Palin. Is that how Americans really see us?!? The major takeaway for me from "Canaglish" was that Canadians who immigrate to the United States are far superior to their fellow compatriots of the red white and blue. Or, they could have been mocking me. I'll choose to believe what I want to believe.
They also performed a musical about spies who moonlight at "Staples." As you can probably tell, it gets pretty creative. Did I mention they also have a live piano player? You can't go wrong!
Left to right: Jake, Maddy, Sam and Sam
The show was about two hours with intermission. I believe they perform a couple of Friday nights a month at the Covey Center and every Saturday night at the black box at Brigham Larson Piano in Orem. Tickets are ten bucks for adults, cheaper for teens and seniors. It's clean entertainment but I'd suggest it for about 12 and up. Highly recommended.
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