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Combining improvisational skills and theatre sports, eight performers attempt to create an hour-long musical, inspired from a single word from the audience. Pirates was the word at their first Melbourne performance, and thus Pirates, the Musical was born.

This is brave comedy indeed. Not only must these comedic souls be entertaining, (they are expected to be funny), they must somehow create a storyline (coherent or otherwise) as they turn a word into a piece of musical theatre.

We have seen this before - rather successfully - with Spontaneous Broadway and the professional talents of Julia Zemiro, Russell Fletcher and others.

These performers are not quite as accomplished and the level of skill does vary, but somehow they did manage to create something that was funny, but flawed.

Pirates turned out to be a multi-story musical about a one-eyed pirate with a lusting for a nubile youth. There was a sub-plot about a couple handling pirate copies of Celine Dion CDs. And thrown into the mix were a mermaid, a crazy Canadian, a woman selling poisonous pies (!) and assorted oddball characters.

No, the storyline did not really make sense, but then that’s the charm of improv – the crazier, the better.

While these performers are mostly young with plenty of energy, what the production lacked was a tighter directorial reign. The strongest performers included Tim Judge (the nubile youth and also the director), Jon Williams (hilarious as the pirate) and Amanda Buckley who introduced the show,

Musical direction by Jason Rushton was more than appropriate but a greater balance with sound levels would have served the production better.

Blank the Musical is very rough around the edges, but has its heart firmly centred on the prospect of making its audience laugh. What more can any audience, Comedy Festival or otherwise, ask?


Blank Slate & Twisted Melon present
BLANK the Musical

Venue: RMIT Kaleide Theatre | 360 Swanston St, Melbourne
Dates: 31st Mar - 13th Apr
Times: Mon-Tue & Fri-Sat 6.30pm, Sun 5.30pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Prices: Full $20, Conc $15
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 & at the door