The Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas will open its fifth anniversary season at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20, by welcoming Broadway’s Next Hit Musical, the acclaimed, award-winning improvised musical comedy from some of New York City’s best improv players.
The cast is led by Chicago City Limits veterans Deb Rabbai and Rob Schiffman, and includes Robert Z Grant, Kobi Libii, Stefan Schick and Rebecca Vigil, along with host Greg Triggs and pianists Eric March, Andrew Resnick and Gary Adler.
“The show is an improvised musical comedy awards show. The first half is done like a mock award show so instead of the Tony Awards, you are attending the Phony Awards,” Rabbai says. “The audience comes in, writes made-up song titles on a piece of paper, and then our host introduces the four nominated songs (which are pulled from the suggestions).”
The songs are then improvised with the audience voting on their favorite. The cast then heads off to get into costume and will perform an entire musical based on the winning selection for Act 2.
“Expect to be dazzled and entertained,” Rabbai says. “We really encourage our audience to get creative when writing down song titles—we want them to be as made up as possible. The fun for us is to create new songs, not paying homage to old songs.”
That means song titles like “My Underwear is Missing,” “Tell Me How To Shut You Up?” and “Is This Thing On?” are all perfect examples.
Rabbai has been doing improv for more than 25 years, first drawn to the medium when her high school acting class went to an improv show.
“Those people seem so clever and intelligent and confident. I wished I could be like them,” she says. “I created an internship program with that company and joined every improv class that would have me and one thing led to another and now I’m here.”
The appeal of improv for her was working with people collaboratively and sharing ideas and supporting one another.
“Every other professional opportunity has stemmed from my ability to be improvisational,” she says. “Some of the things I like best are the idea that my contributions and ideas are good enough, and that was a really unfamiliar feeling for me as a young entertainer. When you work with other people to create something collaboratively, you feel like you are an important part of the process and that your contributions are good enough.”
When Rabbai began in the biz, she says Robin Williams was the face of improvisation, even though what he was doing wasn’t really entirely improv.
“He was doing stand-up comedy done in an energetic, fanatic, non-sequitur way. People saw that as improv, but that wasn’t entirely true,” she says. “It kind of changed when UCB came to New York City and started appealing to a younger crowd who fell in love with free-form. That’s why long-form improv has become the focus for many troupes.”
Broadway’s Next Hit Musical is the perfect example of what a great improv group can do today. Its wacky twist on musical theater with quick-witted improvisers makes for a great evening for young and old.
A pre-performance discussion, free to ticketholders, begins 45 minutes prior to the performance in the Hylton Center’s Buchanan Partners Art Gallery.
The Hylton Performing Arts Center is located on George Mason University’s Prince William Campus at 10960 George Mason Circle in Manassas. Tickets for the show are available by phone at 888-945-2468 or by visiting HyltonCenter.org.,For more information, please visit HyltonCenter.org.
