In the opening number for Improviser! The Musical, we see an iO Harold team take an audience suggestion and begin a scene based around it. But wait, no one is initiating the scene. There is only silence as the nine ensemble members wait for someone else to begin. In the audience there is bewilderment. It’s a Harold team’s worst nightmare and it forms the premise for Improviser!, an utterly joyful if trivial musical parody of the mad, mad world of making it as an improviser. Del would be amused.

Given that we’ve seen solo improv, Elizabethan improv, musical improv, Tarentino improv, Jane Austen improv, improv based around deep, dark secrets, competitive improv, drinking improv and on and on and on, a parody of the whole shebang was bound to happen. Improviser! captures it right down to lampooning the fundamentals of the art form including yes-and-ing, making bold choices, strong initiations and so forth.

But it is much more a parody of the improvising lifestyle, one that budding improvisers are going to love. In one number, three friends lament having to attend yet another one of their improvising campadre’s awful shows (this time in the ‘burbs). Ditto a scene in which a romance blossoms between a female student and her male instructor (why improvisers date other improvisers we’ll never fully know for sure). All the improvising archetypes are here. We have the middle-aged dude who creeps everybody out, the minority improviser who feels like he’s there to fill a quota, the woman who uses her sexuality to get put on a team, the parents who are there to support their kid (and wonder why they spent all that money on tuition) and so forth. If you’re an improviser, you’ll find yourself somewhere in this show, trust me.

After a run at Donny’s Skybox in October, it makes sense that this show has landed at iO, where most of the action takes place. Improviser! is actually about the iO experience, from taking level one classes all the way to auditioning and hopefully getting accepted onto a Harold team like the Del Tones. This forms the basis of the show’s ebullient finale. As the ensemble gathers for their audition, Improviser! employs an amusing gimmick that while predictable is no less joyful once it’s employed. I won’t spoil it here.

So who’s going to see this, you might wonder? Improvisers of course. While my friend (a non-improviser) enjoyed the show, he clearly felt left out of a lot of references. But given that hundreds of students come through iO’s classrooms each year, Improviser! should enjoy a successful run. Oh, and of course the parents of the ensemble will be there. Life does imitate art after all.