★★★★☆
Improv veterans Baby Wants Candy bring their celeb-memoir musical to the Fringe for another shot. Here’s our Shamilton! The Improvised Hip Hop Musical review.
In the world of musical improv, improvised hip-hop has carved out a sizeable niche of its own. The ability to devise rhyming couplets at top-speed is a skill which rarely fails to impress.
But what really marks Shamilton out from the sea of other improv shows at the fringe is the solid plot work behind the spectacle. After a bit of a lengthy intro where the audience chooses a famous figure and shouts a few key moments from their life, the cast – bedecked in the now-famous Hamilton white shirts and high boots – attempt to tell their life story through the medium of Broadway-inflected rap.
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Done well, it’s the kind of big-budget production that can hardly fail to prove a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe, and thankfully, the cast largely meet expectations. Nailing the style of a big musical’s earnest talky sections goes a long way to making the transitions into song consistently entertaining, and the casual confidence of a performer stepping forward to sing about a celebrity they clearly know nothing about is always a thrill.
After sell-out runs across the pond, it’s clear that some members of the troupe are slightly more experienced than others. In the show I saw, guest spot Will Naameh’s (of MC Hammersmith fame) style of rap felt slightly at odds with the more traditional musical stylings of the established cast, and the experience gap certainly showed.
Still, Shamilton has proved consistently popular for a reason. Just like another huge blockbuster musical improv show, Baby Wants Candy have clearly hit upon another format which, even on an off day, just works through strength of the idea alone.
Shamilton! The Improvised Hip Hop Musical is playing at the Assembly, George Square at 17:20 until 27 August. You can view our comprehensive guide to the entire Fringe here.
