What’s to be said about this peculiar, wordy, sometimes musical, often hilarious piece of off-the-cuff hip-hop theater in which the audience provides the inspiration?
Maybe a bit of history will help. “Freestyle Love Supreme” comes to The Old Globe on tour after a successful Broadway run. It features 13 actors of varying talents who find it fun to make up stories (and songs) on the spot with the audience not only watching but participating.
The show originated when musical comedy buddies and old college friends Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anthony Veneziale and Thomas Kail were taking rehearsal breaks from Miranda’s “In the Heights.” They spent downtime kibitzing, riffing and rhyming just for the fun of it. Later they realized the possibilities of making a whole improvised show of it, with audience input.
That notion scares the stuffing out of me, but I was delighted to watch this crazy gang making up stories with nothing but a suggested topic to start with.
In front of a backdrop that has the square, heavy metal look of umpteen music speakers of varying sizes, the cast cavorts, sings and dances in response to audience suggestions elicited by personable emcee Jelly Donut AKA Andrew Bancroft.
“We’re from New York, where it smells like hot garbage in the summer,” he says. Where do you go from there?
All over the place, with a cast that includes people like Hummingbird (Morgan Reilly) who can sing really high and beautifully, Dizzy (Dizzy Sense) in his white Broncos shirt and others with names like Rich Midway (Richard Baskin, Jr.), Shockwave (Chris Sullivan) and Young Nees (Aneesa Folds).
Don’t bother trying to keep track of anything, just sit back, relax and get ready for an evening that may include talk about Elon Musk, cougars or “Grey’s Anatomy” (but will more likely feature other things entirely).
Beatboxing is not something I really understand, but since I’ve heard it used in connection with this show, I’ll assume I saw it and that you will too. But the important thing is not what you’ll see and hear, it’s that you can depend on it to be fun, often hilarious, sometimes even touching, depending on audience input and cast output.
My advice is to grab a ticket and a friend and spend a night with these affable lunatics. You won’t regret it.
The details
“Freestyle Love Supreme” runs through July 10, 2022 on The Old Globe’s Shiley Stage, 1363 Old Globe Way.
Shows Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday at 5 and 9 p.m.
Tickets: 222.TheOldGlobe.org or (619) 234-5623
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