In the topsy-turvy world of Broadway’s Next Hit Musical, a show wins an award even before it’s created.

And someone in the audience provides the inspiration.
The seven-member improv comedy troupe will honor, create and stage Broadway’s Next Hit Musical Saturday
at 7:30 p.m. in the Donnell Theatre at Bowling Green State University. Tickets are $25.
The show starts before the lights go up. As audience members arrive they will be asked to write out the
title of an imaginary show tune, and then deposit the slip of paper into a bowl.
The arrival on stage of the master of ceremonies gets the show underway. Rob Schiffmann, the co-director
of the troupe, said the emcee will batter a bit with humor based on whatever he’s been able to learn
about Bowling Green.
Then in awards show fashion he’ll call out the first “nominee.”
They’ll pull a song title from the bowl, and from that the cast accompanied by a pianist will improvise a
song based on that title.
“They’ll present it as if it were a pre-existing song from a pre-existing musical,” Schiffmann said.
The idea is to make it as convincing and amusing as possible, all on the fly.
The cast, he said, has no pre-existing routines or arrangements. “We rely on what we inherently know
about melody and what we inherently know about story.”
Five songs are presented in the first half of the show, and then the audience gets to vote on its
favorite.
In the second half, Schiffmann explained, the cast stages a complete one-act musical based around the
winning song, including a reprise of that song.
The result should “feel like a real song and a real story.”
Pulling it off requires trust and an openness to what other cast members are doing. “You accept the
energy of the scene,” he said.
The company emerged over the years, starting as part of another New York troupe before spinning off on
its own.
Each show has a master of ceremonies, four actors, a pianist, and a stage manager, who are drawn from a
larger company.
All are professional actors and musicians, Schiffmann said, though they have a variety of other talents.

A couple recently traveled to do outreach work at an African orphanage. Another is a lawyer.
Schiffmann broke into the New York scene after graduating from Oberlin as a pianist with Chicago City
Limits.
Though he was music director, Schiffmann said, “I knew my heart lay on the other side of the piano.”
Eventually he acted more, joined the touring company and then the resident company. He left to join
Broadway’s Next Hit Musical.