The Bloopers! - Fringe Review

Thomas Levi
7 days ago
2 min read

★★★★☆

The Bloopers! proves that the best biopics don't need months of development; sometimes they only need an audience suggestion and a pianist. This fully improvised musical transforms a historical figure into an Oscar-bait blockbuster before your eyes, capturing the clichés, sentimentality and spectacle of the Hollywood biopic with great comic instincts.

Each performance begins with two audience suggestions: the subject of the biopic and, later on, a seemingly impossible plot twist that must somehow find its way into the story. On this occasion, the company tackled the extraordinary life of Phineas Gage, the American railroad worker whose survival after an iron spike passed through his skull transformed neuroscience, while also finding room for an entirely unplanned celebrity appearance from Christopher Walken. It's an absurd starting point, but one the company embraces with complete commitment.

Familiar techniques such as repeated choreography, recurring musical motifs and the classic AABA chorus structure allow numbers to feel surprisingly polished despite being invented in the moment. The ensemble understands exactly how musical theatre communicates character and story, using reprises and simple movements to create songs that feel cohesive rather than chaotic. Their biggest trick isn't making up a musical; it’s making you forget they're making it up at all.

Rather than relying solely on improvisation as the joke, the performers recognise familiar beats of the biopic genre: the inspirational rise, the inevitable setback, the emotional reconciliation and the triumphant finale. Creative licence is gleefully applied to history, but the emotional rhythm remains cinematic. That's what elevates the show beyond an entertaining improv exercise into a genuinely satisfying piece of theatre.

Rhymes understandably become the priority, and you can often sense performers thinking a line ahead in search of the next punchline. As a result, some lyrics favour immediate laughs over richer storytelling or more inventive wordplay. The musical numbers remain enjoyable throughout, but they're slightly less sophisticated than the spoken scenes connecting them.

The Bloopers is fast, funny and astonishingly well executed, demonstrating just how thrilling live improvisation can be when it's built on genuine theatrical skill rather than audience participation alone. Whether you arrive knowing everything about the evening's chosen subject or absolutely nothing, you'll leave feeling like you've just watched the world's most chaotic masterpiece. If Hollywood ever runs out of ideas, The Bloopers already has 9,000 more waiting in the wings.