Baby Wants Candy: The Completely Improvised Full Band Musical has become a Fringe favourite. Its premise is as follows: the audience suggests and votes on a title, and the performers then improvise a musical based solely around that title.
The suggestion this evening is ‘Grandma’s lost in Glasgow’, which launches an inevitable spree of awful, hilarious Glaswegian accents from the American troupe. The title allows for a clear, simple story arc – Grandma gets lost, everyone goes through some personal growth, Grandma is found – and Baby Wants Candy don’t overcomplicate it.
The show is brilliantly funny, the six performers drawing a laugh out of the audience with even the most ridiculous gags. Baby Wants Candy’s humour isn’t subtle and is often crude, but it undoubtedly works.
The lead in this particular show (Grandma, of course) has an excellent singing voice, and commands the stage completely during several solo numbers. She also commits wonderfully to the physical theatre of an old person, as do the rest of the cast when playing talking sheep.
Historically, choreography has tended not to be Baby Wants Candy’s strong point, but a new member of the cast brings in some extraordinary talent, setting the tone of several numbers and sending the audience into peals of laughter with ridiculous dance moves.
The songs are mostly wonderful, but let down by clumsy passing from one improviser to the other – in several cases, this leads to awkward silences or the chorus changing from the beginning of a song to the end. However, this doesn’t prevent the show from being highly enjoyable, and with some hilarious moments and joyous musical numbers, it’s an hour of silly, high-energy fun.