Radio review: Showstoppers

This 'improvised musical' had plenty of energy, but the music was a mess, the plot was non-existent and the comedy was weak

The high-concept of Showstoppers (Radio 4) is "improvised musical". Dylan Emery emcees and a load of really energetic young people all sing and (one assumes) dance about. The audience throws out suggestions on demand ? call it Godsister (I actually preferred DeadEnders, if indeed the person meant it to be like EastEnders, with more death; if they just meant "people at a dead end", that's not funny at all). Set it in 1930s Chicago, in a Malt Shop (a bar that sells milkshakes, with added malt). Now, monkeykids, sing! Sing for your lives!

Hardcore fans of musicals probably won't like the songs, whose on-the-hoof composition means that all they really amount to is a sudden flurry of musical cliche, pummelled together and slathered about. And I suppose, in the end, you'd say the same about the plot, in so far as there really isn't one. If you're a young person, I imagine you'd feel as I did when Whose Line is it Anyway? used to be on. Why are they doing comedy like this, when they could write it beforehand, and it would be funny? In my dotage, I find the effort and vim involved in five people trying to keep a joke afloat almost as charming as the joke itself. It is true that I didn't laugh out loud until 24.05 minutes in, but that is one more laugh than I would have had with the radio off. You can't put a price on pleasure like that.

• Radio

Zoe Williams

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/jan/20/showstoppers-review

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