Full Reviews

Read the full reviews below.

Review: Sondheim Unscripted - Go!

Reviewed by Tom Provenzano
LA Weekly, 9/6/2007

Since Sondheim is impossibly intricate and long — long-form improvisation almost always falls flat — the ImproTheatre folk set themselves an exceedingly difficult task attempting to create a new, Sondheim-style musical every show — one in which they very nearly succeed on opening night. This suggests that refining their skills each week will make it even more compelling than this first outing. An outstanding cast clearly understand the form they are spoofing and have the vocal power to sustain it. Directors Dan O’Connor and Michele Spears prepped the cast extremely well in the kind of relationships required — in this case, three couples and a single man. One hopes in the future that one of the suggestions they ask for is a time period, lest every evening turn into a redux of Company, one of the composer’s few contemporary musicals. The night began brightly with a story of competition within an ad agency to please a very odd new client. Most impressive were Brian Jones and Spears, who invented wonderfully amusing duets as charming young colleagues discovering their love. The story began quickly but bogged down — indicating a need for some driving directorial influence. Also, they lack, of course, the ability to instantly invent the kind of elaborate rhyme schemes that define so much of Sondheim’s brilliance. Fortunately, however, they have a powerful ally in musical director-accompanist Allen Simpson, whose virtuosity in improv keyboard reminds us of the joyful music he composed for Fellowship! a few years ago.

Impro Theatre at THEATRE/THEATER, 5041 W. Pico Blvd., L.A.; Thurs., 8 p.m.; thru Oct. 11. (323) 401-6162 or www.improtheatre.com.

Review: Shakhov - LA Weekly

Reviewed by Amy Nicholson
LA Weekly, 10/14/03

SHAKOV is a divided evening of long-form improv with the first half based on Shakespeare’s works and the second given to the literary clichés of Anton Chekhov. The night I attended, after a few audience-donated words (“anaconda!” “humongous!”), the quick-thinking comedians set off to tell the intertwining tale of the dueling sister-in-laws, the dame enraptured with a giant snake, and those pesky fairies who keep mucking up the potential nuptials. It’s evident that the group had done its homework. Aside from the occasional space-time gaffe (the Bard liked the name Melissa?) and a subplot that took a century to start rolling, they’re really quiet talented at off-the-cuff Middle English, casually tossing off impeccable lines both pithy and stoically romantic. Chekhov was a little trickier to swing — there are really only secrets, metaphors and real estate to play around with here — but again the cast delved straight into a familial saga of lust and glass snakes (again with the anacondas) splashed liberally with vodka and sweated out in a hot sauna. Nearly every performer was a standout, and working together (under Mike McShane’s direction), they formed a playful, literary entertainment.

Review:
Jane Austen Unscripted

Reviewed by Lindsay William-Ross
Arts & Events LAist.com

It’s classic romantic comedy formula–Boy Meets Girl, Boy Falls for Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl–but it has its roots in the venerable tradition of BritLit icon Jane Austen, whose mere six novels continue to capture the modern imagination.

But imagine coming up with a full Austen-esque plot line, characters, witty repartee, and resolution in about 90 minutes? It’s no easy feat, but for ImproTheatre’s Unscripted Repertory performers (some pictured at right), it’s simply what’s on the bill tonight and tomorrow–the last two performances of a weekend run at the NoHo Actors Studio.

With improv, it’s of course made of the moment, and while last night’s hilarious performance is a thing of the past, it stands as a testament to the vast skills of the actors who fell deftly and quickly into roles on the spot. Working off an audience suggestion for a simple topic of conversation–in this case “flowers”–the troupe wove an elaborate melange of secret loves and sibling rivalries complete with Austenian touches such as mysterious letters arriving at the house, curious neighbors, dashing strangers, a parlor piano forte, and the ever-questionable suitability of suitors.

We met the Green sisters–ice queen Anne (Kari Coleman), demure Evelyn (Jo McGinley), and dimwitted Amanda (Michele Spears)–and the men who wished to woo them, including a bumbling horticulturalist (Stephen Kearin), an heir apparent (Dan O’Connor), a man of mystery (Brian Lohmann), and a con artist (Nick Massouh). Throw in a forgetful neighbor (Brian Jones) and his daft storytelling aunt (Lisa Fredrickson), a loving father (Floyd Van Buskirk), a manipulative upper-cruster (Tracy Burns) and a would-be Vicar (Paul Rogan) for good measure and you have a heap of lovelorn folk who make the most of a stroll about the grounds or an impromptu tea dance, all with clever takes on Austen’s flirtatious wordplay that often bends to be taken as witty wisdom. Highlights of the show included Fredrickson’s full-throttle commitment to the prune-faced and somewhat oversexed Lady Grey, Spears’ spastic skipping and mooning, Burns’ conniving, and the scene saves and quick wits of O’Connor, Kearin, and Jones. As the lights dim and rise from scene to scene you have to pinch yourself to remember that these talented actors are scripting the show as they go.

Of course, as often is the case in improv, it’s the flubs and goofs that get the most guffaws, and last night’s show was no exception. Mangled names and memory lapses became character traits and pulled the plotline towards punchlines, much to the audience’s delight. ImproTheatre’s gift lies in far more than improv’s expected one-liners and zingers–rather, their gift is the more subtle and complex art of storytelling in what’s known as Longform improv; the group has won great international acclaim for their takes on Shakespeare, Sondheim musicals, and Tennessee Williams’ drama. This is their first stab at Austen, and a worthy one at that. It is always a thrill to see talented performers (and you’ve probably seen these faces before on your tv or at the movies) dive headlong into the unknown and come up roses (or in last night’s case the vexing “pyrocampia” flower). Although Austen’s work is timeless, ImproTheatre’s Austen Unscripted is by its very nature of its time; Austen would be pleased, indeed.

Review: Shakhov - Backstage West

Reviewed by Dink O’Neal
Backstage West, 10/03

Lock some monkeys in a room with typewriters, and eventually they’ll bang out a classic–or so the theory goes. Substitute an ensemble well-versed in improvisational wickedness, add dramaturgical history and unforeseeable audience suggestions, and the result couldn’t be more hilarious than this latest offering from the recently renamed Impro Theatre, formerly L.A. Theatresports.

Having mastered “long form” pieces during its 16-year history, including fully improvised musicals, the company turned its sights on two of theatre’s greats, Shakespeare and Chekhov, as inspiration for this work. Director Mike McShane, serving as onstage educator and ringmaster, guides his troupe through its paces with an impressively researched background on the chosen authors. Homage to the Bard incorporates subplots expertly woven together, redundantly flowery speeches, and double entendres galore; the company’s take on Chekhovian construction involves a relentless use of each character’s complete and lengthy Russian name and enough gloom and depression to drive even Tony Robbins to despair.

Yet, requiring more than just the ability to deliver a series of sitcom one-liners, this style of improv demands a constant vigilance so that storylines aren’t sacrificed for the sake of an easy laugh. For the most part, Impro’s players handled this well, none more admirably than Floyd VanBuskirk, Dan O’Connor, and Michele Spears. Their individual abilities to mentally collate and retrieve the smallest bits of relevant information anchored both pieces, finely avoiding the pitfalls of anachronistic or shock-value humor.

Review: Extreme Theatresports

Reviewed by Sandra Ross
LA Weekly, 8/24/00

Extreme Theatresports may not be improv as blood sport, since, on the night I attended, the two teams of performers were competing for a Polly Packet minipurse toy, but it’s close - and the results were consistently funny. Three judges flashed scores for technique, narrative coherence and entertainment value, while the MCef encouraged audience participation, including vocal dissent over the judges’ scoring. Although the judges possessed a horn to terminate boring scenes, they didn’t need to use it much because the improvs were invariably hilarious. Team members adeptly performed a single scenario in multiple genres suggested by the audience. These guys were so slick, they turned the dumbest audience suggestions into gold. (Imagine yielding merriment from the dreary audience prompt “physics of snails.”) One of the funniest sketches followed a mama’s boy introducing his parasitic twin to a potential girlfriend. The song challenges at times seemed a bit tired, and artistic director Dan O’Connor might also want to consider eliminating the late-night show’s intermission.

Reviews: Triple Play

Reviewed by Dean Edward
NoHo-LA, 3/21/01

Another evening of wacky fun from the gang at LA Theatresports, showcasing the talents of their entourage with quick wit and improv skills that have to be seen to be believed. Three men and women, sitting on stools armed only with sharp toungues and suggestions from the audience, must take the bare bones of a style (i.e. disaster films) and fashion a 3-act play. Not only that, they must do this with three different styles. The evening I saw it, they came up with entertaining yarns based on a Tennessee Williams play, reality TV shows, and a Cole Porter musical. With the help of a rowdy audience, the first piece (called “Gator” byt the 2nd act because it took place in the swamp) took all of Williams’ white trash pop culture and turned it upside down with its’ increasingly disturbing story of a prostitute from the Latin Quarter who has a daughter who is “just not right.” They live in the swamp in a small shed with one window and a beaten dog hanging on the wall (kudos to the twisted guy in the front row who made this suggestion), and they have an alligator in the front yard who just had babies. An evil man from town arrives bringing paperwork that may mean a lifestyle change. The dog on the wall whimpers. And Tennessee rolls over in his grave.

The next piece detailed 5 contestants who must survive in a submarine and are torpedoed to land if they are voted off. The final piece was a real treat, a send-up of Cole Porter musicals that took place on a golf course, called “Teed Off!”- the story of a caaddy from the wrong side of the green that falls for a society dame playing in a tournament. She loves him, but her sponsor holds her back. Into the picture come two ne’er do-wells looking for buried treasure in one of the sand traps. The improvised songs were the highlight here, especially the big production number, “Easy Street” with the most intriguing choreography since Busby Berkley. Go have fun. Be ready to offer off-the-wall suggestions!

Triple Play
at The Chicago Improv Festival

Review by Jeff Catanese

LA Theatresports brought their Triple Play format into town and wowed the crowd with their styles acumen. Performing three plays at once, a Shakespeare piece set in a castle in Gibraltar, a “Dungeons & Dragons type movie” involving a quest for a magic robot, and a Sondheim musical replete with cannibalism atop Mount Everest, they displayed a cleverness and sense of fun that was easy to applaud with every well-turned phrase.

The Shakespeare play was easily the best of the three and involved a lonesome prince (Brad Sherwood) who drooled floods each time Clarissa, his love, entered the room. The plot was complicated by Clarissa’s love of avocados and their tendency to make her randy. Although the troupe occasionally got tied up in the language, their acceptance of each other’s choices made the play flow smoothly and endeared the audience well to the characters, even the minor ones like the cross-dressing king.

The Dungeons & Dragons format seemed to serve less as a theatrical style than a chance for the four players to cut loose a bit, and have some real fun. They included the audience in that fun. When Dan O’Connor (as the hero Gregor) met the two-headed Circe, he was quick to point out that the creature spoke “with both heads at the same time, and always in rhyme.” The gift was quickly embraced by Kari Coleman and Edi Patterson, and they proceeded to earn the high applause they received.

The music in the Sondheim piece was relevant to the style, and very enjoyable to listen to, but the play suffered for the absence of Mr. O’Connor. However, despite the lack of a strong story, the players were well committed to the characters and incorporated the songs into the story very well, spouting love songs about killing and eating, and rousing marches about the welcomed death of a loved one.

In the end it was a little hard to understand why the three acts of each play were intertwined, and, in fact, some language idioms and body language of each did start to spill over into the others, but LATS again and again proves itself a bastion of strong, intelligent improvisation, giving as much import to the presentation of their ideas as the ideas themselves. In their capable hands even the most base humor becomes an exhibit of improvisational skill and cunning.

Review: ‘Carnal Peaks’ is a sharp, mercilessly funny daytime-drama spoof

Lesley Strom, Staff Writer
Daily Trojan , 2/13/01

Do you ever find yourself walking mindlessly down 28th Street on a Saturday night, desperately hoping to find anything that resembles a party because you’re bored and can’t think of anything else to do? Well, fret no longer. Your Saturday night woes may soon come to an end-well, at least for the next five weeks or so.

Instead of wasting your time trying to impress others, let others impress you. And you will be impressed by the actors in the show “Carnal Peaks,” presented by the Los Angeles Theatre Sports Company. If you’re not already intrigued by its titillating title, read on to learn more. “Carnal Peaks” is an improvisational show that parodies soap operas. Each week there is a new episode so you can keep going back and see new developments in the plot.

Because this is live theater, and improvisational theater at that, there are some absolutely hilarious parts, and also some where a joke just doesn’t work. However, you can be sure that the evening will have you laughing so hard that you will be exhausted when it is over.

As if the great one-liners weren’t enough, the blunders make this fast paced make-believe world even funnier. Mistakes, such as calling characters by the wrong name or laughing with the audience at something funny that another character, did help make the evening fun and interactive for the audience.

Each new scene in the show is prompted by a narrator who calls out which characters are in the scene and what they are talking about. The narrator’s setup has no real bearing on the action. What is physically said or acted out is entirely up to the actor’s whim. This is a show where anything can happen. The actors are just as much in the dark as the audience is as to what will happen next.

“Carnal Peaks” is definitely a show to check out. It isn’t expensive and there is nothing better than allowing yourself to be entertained. If you are really into daytime soap operas, you will appreciate this show. “Carnal Peaks” is just like any other soap opera…it’s really easy to get hooked.

Review: Kickass Bard

Reviewed by Jeff Catanese
Improv Review.com, April 5, 2002

LA Theatresports performed their Unscripted Shakespeare show, and they kicked ass. Of course The Bard of Avon is probably rolling in his grave, but it’s probably only because he didn’t think to just improvise at the Globe Theatre for Queen Elizabeth and the groundlings.

Although I did not spend any time counting iambs (I was too busy laughing anyway), it was very apparent from the first few lines of their creation, “The Thorny Rose,” that they had a great command of Elizabethan English and the style of Shakespeare’s writing. Even when the words came tripping over the tongue instead of tripping off it, the commitment to the words was so strong that the flubbed line was quickly employed to comic effect.

Floyd Van Buskirk was a standout in the very strong cast for his dramatic flair and avoidance of the joke for a greater comic truth. His jail monologue was as heartbreaking as it was hilarious and he plays a romantic scene with all charm and a dash of melancholy. Michele Spears, Lisa Fredrickson, and Edi Patterson, playing the lead roles of three royal sisters who will become women “this very month,” employed their Shakespearean archetypes extraordinarily well, never letting them become two-dimensional. In addition, all three gave fine spins to many of the supporting characters, making the transitions very obvious with only a hat or a vest. Brian Lohmann seemed to play everyone else and although he never tried to steal a scene, he seemed to be the lynchpin in the play’s smoothly running machinery.

Having a half-hour to create a full-length Shakespeare play is a daunting task to say the least, and the impetus might be to stay as simple as possible and shy away from any subplots. However, the members of LA Theatresports dove headfirst into every new element, plot twist and character. The story grew wisely complex and the players allowed their great understanding of how scene and story are constructed to guide the through the maze they made.

It was nice to see Shakespeare improvised for style and content rather than just a scene with a few thees and thous thrown in. Especially fine was the complete acceptance of the way Shakespearean characters observed their world, Ms. Fredrickson asking the land she slept on, “Meadow, where is thy safety?” At the close of their performance they received a standing ovation, which they richly deserved.

Review:
Shakespeare Unscripted

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
LA Weekly, 10/5/00

Shakespeare Unscripted is an improvised vamp on the Bard’s linguistic stylings that runs just over an hour. Never repetitive or dull, the show uses a rotating cast which takes the stage only after audience members have suggested a title for the production. Once that choice is made, the actors do the rest, employing Elizabethan literary conventions. On the night I attended, the troupe did a creditable job with “The Shipwreck of Love,” a tale of adventure, mishap, romance and mistaken identities - all salient aspects of the Bard’s work. The real fun lies in anticipating where this patchwork story is going to go next, and in watching the actors doing whatever it takes to keep the narrative afloat, a necessity that gives rise to some hilarious moments. Tracy Connor, Justin Bowler, Joseph Limbaugh, Doreen Remo, Katharine Mills, Mark Tracy, Susan Peahle and John Rosen deserve praise for their energy and creativity that made the evening so enjoyable.

Review: Shakespeare Unscripted - Out of Bounds West

Reviewed by Anthony Brandon Wong
May 2007

Improvisational brilliance reached new heights on Saturday night at the OUT OF BOUNDS WEST improv festival. SHAKESPEARE UNSCRIPTED is a side-splitting Shakesperean play that has never been written, until the moment that its talented ensemble utter the Bard-like words that issue forth from their verdant imaginations and eager tongues. In short, yes, it’s improvised, but because many of the 9 cast members have been working together for 10-20 years, the result is a level of virtuosity and polish that is rarely seen in improv on stage. I loved every minute of it, laughed my ass off - as did the rest of the audience. These actors listen so well to each other and pick up on each other’s offers with the skill that can only come from working as an ensemble for so long. I dearly hope they get their own theatre venue - I want everyone to see them. Aye, me doth think they are really kewl!

Celebrating the Risk

By Terry Morgan
Backstage West, 7/13/04

Jo McGinley is the managing and educational director of Impro Theatre, a company she says has evolved over the years. “We’ve morphed into many things,” she says. “We started out as Los Angeles Theatresports in 1988, definitely that short-form improv competition sort of thing. What we discovered was, that was a great starting point, but all of us being actors first and improvisers second, we really love improvising full-length scenes–and not just having to go for the laugh, but letting the moment be whatever it is. We’re open to whatever the moment is rather than just pounding out the funny. We tend to appeal to actors. I teach the improvising plays and films class, and they improvise full-length, an hour or hour and a half, play or film style, and we really study time periods and film and playwright genres. You are the writer and the actor and the director, all in the moment, working with other actors creating these long stories–cutting from scene to scene if it’s a film style, it might have lots of short scenes; if it’s a Tennessee Williams [piece] it tends to be longer. You learn how to self-direct. How you fit into a bigger picture of what your scene would need…. You’re sort of creating shape of show on the fly. You really have no time to question your impulses; you’re just completely focused in on your scene partners. When it all comes together, it’s just so satisfying because you didn’t have to wait to be cast in something or for someone to write a great script, you just did it there. When you go back to scripted work, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is easy, I just made up an entire play.’”

When asked what a working actor can expect to gain from improv training, McGinley replies, “A ton of things. What you learn on your feet is what’s holding you back. For example, someone who’s not interested in performing improv onstage, they just wanna see how it applies to an audition or being on the set; it’s a confidence you get, and you learn what your stage presence is. [You’re also] practicing your listening and your focusing skills. When you go to an audition you’ve got to be in the moment, learn what environment your character is in, and connect immediately with whoever you’re reading with. It’s almost like therapy on your feet. In commercial auditions people tend to go negative right away because of nerves and trying to look good. You learn to really engage in the game and play, and with negative situations you can kind of work them around, you can work with it, be sort of charmed with whatever your partner says. Learning to use mistakes as gifts is a big deal; things don’t have to go perfectly, you can adjust to a crappy room. You’re strong and malleable, all at the same time.”

As a teacher, McGinley’s recommendations for good improv are as follows: “Letting go of control, and making eye contact with your partner, trying not to plan ahead. It all comes down to control. They wanna come to loosen up and feel like they’re malleable, and then when something happens onstage that they didn’t plan, you can see their faces sort of drop. It really encourages you to fail. We give the analogy of: In the circus, when someone’s going across the tightrope, if they fall into the net, they don’t slink off in shame and leave the tent, they get out of the net and throw open their arms with a big smile to the audience, and what does the audience do? They applaud. They’re not applauding that you fell into the net, they’re saying, ‘Look what you just did,’ they’re celebrating the risk. I think as people get older they get more and more shut down because they’ve made more mistakes. So you try to think, ‘Well, I’ll never make that one again,’ when really you need to get back up there and say, ‘Woo-hoo! I failed, I learned something, I’m moving on.’ It does carry on into real life, where you’re hopefully looser.”

While the virtues of improv training in voiceover work and CGI have been mentioned, McGinley adds a third category in which the skills are useful–videogames. “In The Sims videogame, Stephen Kearin and Gerri Lawlor, they’re both improvisers and they created the language, they’ve done all the voices for them for the last five years. It’s a gibberish language. I did one day of recording last year for eight hours; we were improvising the gibberish language to match the animation they’d already done. You’d be in the sound booth, and all you’d see is [an image of] ‘girl receiving flowers,’ her hand going up to her heart, and you’d go, ‘Yip-badika-da,’ and they’re, like, ‘Great, keep going!’ By the end of the day I was insane, I didn’t even know what English was. It was so fun, a crazy intense experience. There’s actually some college group that studying the phonetics of it, they thought there was all this meaning in it.”