Oftentimes, when you read write-ups in the press about musical improv, there’s a disclaimer somewhere apologizing for liking musicals or a begrudging anecdote about how the writer expected it to be terrible but was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t suck. No apologies here: I have never seen musical improv disappoint. When it’s good, it’s epic. And even when it’s not so fierce, it’s still effin’ awesome. I’m sure bad musical improv exists somewhere, but my eyes have yet to behold such a thing. Perhaps the form scares off amateurs, because Baby Wants Candy sets the bar so freakin’ high that the world’s greatest high-jumpers would have trouble Fosbury Flopping over it.
Born in Chicago’s fertile improv community over 10 years ago, Baby Wants Candy has grown from an eight-person playground into a multi-city theater troupe. As its members left Chicago for careers on the coasts and new members joined its local ranks, it became possible to extend the BWC brand to both New York and Los Angeles. Audiences at the UCBT are no strangers to Baby Wants Candy shows, but the troupe has been performing every other month or so this past year at the Barrow Street Theater to try and establish a consistent off-Broadway run and draw the audience that’s so hard to reach for a comedy show: theater people.
Everything in a Baby Wants Candy performance is improvised on the fly: the plots, the characters, the songs, the music, the blocking and even the prancing. To put things in perspective, it took Rosie O’Donnell and Boy George $10 million and years of preparation to bring their crapfest failure Taboo to a Broadway stage. Baby Wants Candy just makes stuff up instantly and gets standing ovations almost every time. Plus, BWC makes the whole process look totally effortless.
I asked Al Samuels, one of BWC’s founding fathers, whether their show is practiced to the point of it being formulaic. In other words, is the troupe as wowed by what they’re doing as much as the audience?
“In every Baby Wants Candy show there are at least one or two things that the performers do that just blows me away,” he explains. “It’s the big reason we have been able to perform so many shows. I have done comedy for many years and BWC by far has the most surprises for me.”
“I really was not a fan of improv before I saw a Baby Wants Candy show,” adds Emily Dorezas, BWC’s producer. “I was hooked instantly and I am always surprised at how much I laugh.”
With an alumni list featuring some big bananas in the world of comedy—Rachel Dratch, Seth Meyers, Jack McBrayer, Stephnie Weir and Nicole Parker of MadTV and Colbert Report writer Peter Gwinn—it’s apparent that if someone can make it in Baby Wants Candy, then they’ve got the skills to pay the bills. I wondered whether improvisers who are good at straight improv can easily adapt to the demands of musical improv.
“Not necessarily, at least not in our form. We try to play very fast long form improvisation-which sounds like an oxymoron,” explains Samuels. “You have to have all the skills of a straight improviser, but you also have to be good at quickly building strong characters and relationships, creating a funny, coherent story and also sing.”
Baby Wants Candy performs March 14-15, Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow St. (at 7th Ave.), 212-239-6200; 10, $20.
Born in Chicago’s fertile improv community over 10 years ago, Baby Wants Candy has grown from an eight-person playground into a multi-city theater troupe. As its members left Chicago for careers on the coasts and new members joined its local ranks, it became possible to extend the BWC brand to both New York and Los Angeles. Audiences at the UCBT are no strangers to Baby Wants Candy shows, but the troupe has been performing every other month or so this past year at the Barrow Street Theater to try and establish a consistent off-Broadway run and draw the audience that’s so hard to reach for a comedy show: theater people.
Everything in a Baby Wants Candy performance is improvised on the fly: the plots, the characters, the songs, the music, the blocking and even the prancing. To put things in perspective, it took Rosie O’Donnell and Boy George $10 million and years of preparation to bring their crapfest failure Taboo to a Broadway stage. Baby Wants Candy just makes stuff up instantly and gets standing ovations almost every time. Plus, BWC makes the whole process look totally effortless.
I asked Al Samuels, one of BWC’s founding fathers, whether their show is practiced to the point of it being formulaic. In other words, is the troupe as wowed by what they’re doing as much as the audience?
“In every Baby Wants Candy show there are at least one or two things that the performers do that just blows me away,” he explains. “It’s the big reason we have been able to perform so many shows. I have done comedy for many years and BWC by far has the most surprises for me.”
“I really was not a fan of improv before I saw a Baby Wants Candy show,” adds Emily Dorezas, BWC’s producer. “I was hooked instantly and I am always surprised at how much I laugh.”
With an alumni list featuring some big bananas in the world of comedy—Rachel Dratch, Seth Meyers, Jack McBrayer, Stephnie Weir and Nicole Parker of MadTV and Colbert Report writer Peter Gwinn—it’s apparent that if someone can make it in Baby Wants Candy, then they’ve got the skills to pay the bills. I wondered whether improvisers who are good at straight improv can easily adapt to the demands of musical improv.
“Not necessarily, at least not in our form. We try to play very fast long form improvisation-which sounds like an oxymoron,” explains Samuels. “You have to have all the skills of a straight improviser, but you also have to be good at quickly building strong characters and relationships, creating a funny, coherent story and also sing.”
Baby Wants Candy performs March 14-15, Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow St. (at 7th Ave.), 212-239-6200; 10, $20.
