Ruth Bratt News

Every night the cast of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical pull off something incredibly ambitious; they create a real musical from scratch, not just an improv night with songs but a full story with characters you can care about, a live band of incredible musicians, and seamless choreography.

The critically acclaimed improvisational frontrunners The Showstoppers are not only bringing their Olivier Award-winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical to Pleasance Grand this year, the team are also dropping by Pleasance Above with their unique blend of spontaneous musical theatre and whimsical kids entertainment, The Showstoppers' Kids' Show. Aimed entirely at children, The Showstoppers' story factory will be open for business from 3rd - 21st August at 11:40am.

London's celebrated annual 50-Hour Improvathon (The Stage Top 5 Fringe Theatre Events of 2015), a massive improvised comedy soap opera starring many of the world's leading improvisers, is back for a ninth year!

On March 24th 2016 The Hippodrome are excited to be introducing an all new improv Supergroup, featuring the mega-talents of Josie Lawrence (Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Comedy Store Players), Cariad Lloyd (Austentatious), Pippa Evans & Ruth Bratt (Showstopper!).

We talk to some of our favourite theatre folk, including Kerry Ellis, Sabrina Aloueche and Tiffany Graves, about their favourite theatre experiences of 2015!

5 p.m.Following a 10-week engagement wowing audiences and critics alike in the first-ever season for an improvised musical in the West End, the run of SHOWSTOPPER! THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL is being extended, with a transfer to the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. For just 10 more performances between 15th February and 25th July, audience suggestions will be transformed instantly into all-singing, all-dancing shows with unpredictable and hilarious results.

It is week nine. I have been to Mars, twice. I have scattered my mother's ashes (and inhaled them) from a Norwegian mountain. I have tamed lions, I have been a nun, I have fixed cars and served custard. I have sung about being polite in Britain and how to defrost the fridge. I have loved so many partners, I have wept over their bodies, I have been married at least a dozen times.

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has been wowing audiences and critics alike in this first ever season for an improvised musical in the West End. Every night audience suggestions are transformed instantly into all-singing, all-dancing shows with unpredictable and hilarious results. The show is now in its final three weeks at the Apollo Theatre.

Musical director Duncan Walsh Atkins writes the latest blog from the Showstopper! team...

Week two of our ten-week run and we're getting into the swing of things. The preview week is over, we've had press night; or rather press day - unusually for the West End, we did a matinee and an evening show on opening day and invited reviewers to see both performances, just to show that Showstopper really is different every show.  

The West End will welcome a record number of new British musicals this autumn, thanks to the world's first major season for an improvised musical.

Acclaimed American improv stars The Pajama Men are the latest big name signings to be anounced for the eighth annual 50-Hour Improvathon, this coming weekend in London.

This weekend at Hoxton Hall, Extempore Theatre presents not just an evening, but a 50-hour marathon of non-stop improvisational comedy, in the form of a soap-opera set in 1920s Egypt.

Produced by Extempore Theatre (the new name for award-winning experimental theatre company The Sticking Place), creators of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical and The Terror Seasons, Britain's only annual festival of horror theatre and Grand Guignol, The 6th Annual London Improvathon takes place over 50 hours from Friday 11 January at 7.00pm to Sunday 13 January at 9.00pm at Hoxton Hall. Check out photos from the event below!