Video: Watch Highlights From the Fully Improvised Musical Showstopper! | Playbill

Playbill Goes Fringe Video: Watch Highlights From the Fully Improvised Musical Showstopper!

This musical—in the style of Avenue Q, Matilda, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Hamilton—was made up on the spot at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with nearly 3,500 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the entire month in August for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!

When you visit Showstopper!, you get to watch the world's newest musical—literally. Seven performers and a band of three make up a show on the spot from audience-suggested prompts, including a random premise, title, and five musical styles. And the results are generally hysterical—we made it a Playbill Pick at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Our Videographer Ethan Treiman was on hand for another evening's performance, and it was especially off-the-walls. The musical: Far Harbor. The premise: Nancy, a ship's navigator, overcomes the prejudice of her shipmates and reunites with her mother aboard a spooky, scary ghost ship. The score: songs in the style of Avenue QMatilda the Musical, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Hamilton.

If you're wondering how those things could possibly go together, therein lies the off-kilter fun of Showstopper!, which sold out 11 earlier runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and won a 2016 Olivier Award for a stint in London's West End. 

Watch above to see some musical highlights from Far Harbor, one of many brand new musicals debuted at Showstopper! at this year's Fringe. Showstopper! has completed its Edinburgh Fringe run but they are currently touring the U.K., including to the West End. Learn more here.

 
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