Hideout Theatre's Happily Ever After
Austin improvisers tackle the challenge of making up their own Disney musicals
By Alexa Harrington, Fri., July 10, 2015
When I learned that Hideout Theatre would be doing a show called Happily Ever After in which actors would improvise musical fairy tales inspired by Disney, I thought, "Finally!" But I also thought, "How the hell are they going to pull this off?" How do you capture the special magic of a Disney musical: the beautiful, catchy songs that get stuck in your head, the jokes that are funny to audiences of any age, the story that has you laughing, crying, and clapping your hands when it's all over, and, most of all, that magic – the princesses, heroes, villains, animals, snowmen, and teacups that talk and sing and dance? You can't just throw together a few songs and costumes and hope that it ends up resembling a Disney musical.
So I asked Roy Janik, co-director of Happily Ever After. After promising me that everyone involved in the show has put a lot of practice, study, hard work, and heart into creating their own version of that Disney magic, he described the process behind the production.
Austin Chronicle: What is the rehearsal process like for this show? Especially considering it is improvised?
Roy Janik: We get asked this a lot: "How do you rehearse for improv? I thought it was all made up on the spot." Our rehearsals share more in common with sports practices, I think. The cast learns how to move together as a team. We build up a common vocabulary of techniques that carry on into each show. We learn how to work with Chad Wellington's lighting moves (he's our technical director). We practice nailing the tone and acting style appropriate to Disney stories. We improvise scenes and then discuss what felt appropriate and what felt overly complicated or out of the genre and why. We're basically doing reps – building up our Disney muscles so that in the show it's second nature to play the types of characters and do the types of things that might happen in a Disney film. So while none of the content from rehearsals will make it into the show, the rehearsals are where we learn how to do the show.
AC: How do you rehearse music for an improv show?
RJ: Rehearsing songs has actually been the bulk of our rehearsal process. Our goal is to keep the stories super-simple and focus on creating compelling songs. Musical improv is hard work, but the payoff is enormous. Our musical director, Ammon Taylor, is basically a genius. He came in to the first rehearsal with a specific, simple breakdown of how Disney songs work, and he's been drilling the cast on it since day one. So while every song is wildly different and the lyrics are always unique, there are some basic rules of thumb that we can practice. And practice. And practice. Lately, we've been hitting up group songs, like the opening of Beauty and the Beast, or songs that are sung while time passes, like "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" from Frozen, and those bring their own unique challenges.
Improvising songs is the thing that the actors are the most nervous about, but it's also what will make this show stand out. And from my point of view, they're totally nailing it.
AC: Has the show become something different since rehearsals started?
RJ: The kind of awesome thing about doing an improv show is that you really have no idea what the show will be like until you've got the cast assembled and playing together. Ryan [Austin, the show's co-director], Ammon, and I knew that we wanted to do a Disney-inspired show with fully improvised songs, but that was about it. How the scenes progress, how the songs are structured, how the narration works, and a thousand other details all come out of rehearsals.
In improvised productions, the cast are not only the actors, but also the writers, voice-over artists, and editors on any given night. Because of that, their personalities and performance styles really do inform what the show becomes. As one of the directors, it's my job to notice what the actors are already doing inherently and say, "Yes! More of that!"
AC: How do the actors prep themselves outside of the rehearsals?
RJ: By watching a ton of Disney films, soaking them in, and discussing them. We've had cast viewings of Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, and The Little Mermaid. It hasn't been hard. By and large the cast and crew are superfans, so having an excuse to revisit our favorite childhood films has been awesome.
AC: Can the audience expect to have a say in where the show goes?
RJ: The audience will explicitly give us the setting and world that our story for a given night takes place in. We'll have them shout out ideas at the beginning and go from there. You know, things like underwater or in a village or in the desert.
But as with any improv show, the audiences' reactions in the moment will inform every part of the show. Their laughter – or tears – will tell the performers when something is working, and that feedback loop will make the show follow the rhythm of the audience. It's one of the things I love most about improv. Because the script isn't set, the show is created for the people that are in that particular room on that particular night. And everyone is a part of that.
Happily Ever After runs July 11-Aug. 29, Saturdays, 8pm, at the Hideout Theatre, 617 Congress. In the tradition of the work that inspires it, the show will be family-friendly and suitable for all ages. For more information, visit www.hideouttheatre.com.
