REVIEW: Down the Improv Tunnel in It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity (Brave New Workshop)

A promotional image for Brave New Workshop’s current show, It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity, now playing at the Dudley Riggs Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.

With HUGE Theater on the move, it’s not terribly surprising that the improv is sneaking into more places. At Brave New Workshop, where pre-written sketches and improv normally mix freely, improv is taking over in their latest show: It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity. The cast of six (or so) is drawn from a potential pool of 17 performers, some of whom are BNW regulars and some of whom are actors-about-town. The evening is completed with the musical improvisations of musical director Jon Pumper and the quick-thinking cues by technical director Matthew Vichlach. It is, quite simply, hilarious.

While the general format of the shows watched for this review was the same, the contents were quite varied. BNW’s artistic director Caleb McEwen hosts the evening, and suggestions from the audience are solicited. As with watching Saturday Night Live, part of the joy is watching especially funny moments trip someone into breaking character, especially when the first one to laugh or crack a smile sets off a domino effect.

Where in town, besides watching reruns of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, where you will find a pretty good improvised song with chorus?

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It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity plays through August 5 at the Dudley Riggs Theatre in Minneapolis, MN.

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John Anderson

John Anderson is a lifelong theatre fan turned theatre reviewer. He is the 3rd Editor-in-Chief of the Twin Cities Arts Reader.