An Improbable Musical
A new musical theatre show created right in front of your eyes.
Theatre as live as it gets. Witness the creation of the newest musical around, every night!
You want to know a secret? The best bits of any show, you never get to see: beautiful moments of discovery, fresh minted gags, a story coming alive for the first time – all this happens in the rehearsal room. Less of a secret is that you never see the worst: dead ends, duff choices, bits that don’t fit.
But what if we let you in on the secret and put them ALL on the stage: triumphs, disasters, the wonderful and the what-the-hell? How? By improvising from scratch a new show made especially for the audience that night. Story, song and puppetry conjured from the unlikeliest materials by matchless performers and every moment of creation (or lack of it) witnessed by you. Definitely not an attempt to improvise the “classic” musical but an unapologetic experiment in starting with nothing and seeing where we end up.
A Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Improbable production. Made with the support of Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence fund.
Aya was the puppet designer and director, as well as one of the puppeteers/improvisers, in this production.
★★★★★
West End Best Friend
“Fantastically funny, original and genius production.”
★★★★
everything theatre
“The secret ingredient, however, proves to be unexpectedly beautiful puppetry from Aya Nakamura.”
★★★★
The Guardian
“the company hit their glorious sweet spot…An Improbable Musical is a lovely, open-hearted exercise in spontaneous creation.”
“a joy to behold…An Improbable Musical is the biggest and most unexpected success I may have ever seen. I’ve already booked to go back.”
THETARESS
★★★★★
Theatre Everything
“impressively achieves the seemingly unachievable“
★★★★
FAIRY POWERED PRODUCTION
“ these performers are true geniuses and masters at thinking on the spot – we could all do with a bit of their imagination.”
Cast Members
- Performers: Niall Ashdown, Ruth Bratt, Adam Courting, Josie Lawrence, Janet Etuk, Lee Simpson, and Aya Nakamura
- Musicians: Christopher Ash (Piano) Max Gittings (Flute) Joley Cragg (Percussion) and Juliet Colyer (Cello)
Production Credits
- Director: Lee Simpson
- Musical Devisor and Director: Christopher Ash
- Puppet Designer and Director: Aya Nakamura
- Designer: E.M. Parry
- Associate Director: Angela Clerkin
- Lighting Designer: Colin Grenfell
- Sound Designer: Oscar Thompson and Will Thompson
- Movement Director: Pauline Mayers