The cast of Broadway's Next Hit Musical was on Interlochen's campus for a show, and brought us a real treat - our first ever entirely improvised Live from Studio A session! Cast members Rebecca Vigil, Rob Schiffman, Rob Grant and Eric March gave us a performance to remember.
Eric, Rebecca, Rob and Rob were great sports, and performed for us at what had to be an ungodly hour of the morning for them. Since I was the only live person in the audience (a perk of hosting in Studio A!), I got to choose the song title (yay!). At the end of the interview, please enjoy, "It's Early, and I'm In Love."
After the jump, learn more about BNHM and hear a BONUS TRACK! - the cast dedicates an ode to IPR Studio A engineer, Brock Morman.
Broadway's Next Hit Musical is an entirely improvised musical. Act One occurs during an, "awards show," - the cast reaches into a bucket and retrieves titles of songs invented by the audience; the actors then create scenes and songs based on that material. The audience then votes on which "show" they liked the most. In Act Two, the cast creates an improvised musical "production" of the winning show, complete with costumes. Says Rebecca, "Everything is, - oh, we have to decide now? OK, great!"
Improvising a scene seems challenging enough, but adding music seems like it would be particularly tricky. Even Eric, the Musical Director, makes up the tunes as he goes along. How do they do it? "As we play," he says, "...our brains sort of go into computer mode, and they sort of become an algorithm, and it's about kind of closing off different branches based on where each other are. It's like, 'Oh, well we went here, OK, so these lines are cut off,' and then you eventually narrow it down, like - 'OK, this is what we're doing, it's this structure,' and we create a style together, and then we go from there."
"We're really listening to Eric," says Rob S., "and he's really listening to us, so when we feel that chorus coming, we move to that chorus...we're staying really present with one another."
That all sounds pretty complex in theory, but in practice, the cast makes it seem effortless. And funny! Don't forget the funny.