How is an improv show like a first date? It can be awkward, funny and is different every time. A date night involving laughter, historical fiction (of dubious historical accuracy) and a dash of forbidden romance, the Upfront Theatre’s “50 Shades of Velvet: An Improvised Romance Novel” is an unconventional delight for you and your valentine.
Of course, my valentine is home with our kids. No matter. At 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 4, I am away from my house, wearing my N95 mask, sitting in a very comfortable seat in an intimate black box performance space. This is my first post-COVID theater-going experience and, admittedly, the first show I’ve seen at the Sylvia Center for the Arts on Prospect Street. I never did get to see the Upfront at their original location on Bay Street with founder Ryan Stiles at the helm, so I’m excited to see them now that they have re-emerged as a nonprofit. Postponed to February due to a shortage of performers and staff, “50 Shades of Velvet” will play through February 26 with showtimes at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Because who couldn’t use a laugh in February, with a valentine or not?
Besides the skeletal structure and knowing that they are opening with a dance scene, “50 Shades of Velvet” is created anew for audiences every time it is performed. With just a few suggestions from the audience, the 9:30 p.m. performance becomes “The Cracking of the Hardest Shell,” a 1920s love story about a flapper named Courtney (Kathy Soles) who desires to be “a singing common girl” at a speakeasy. The improvisers engage in some fun wordplay. When Courtney asks if she should sing or speakeasy, bouncer Jimmy (Michael Haycock) tells her to “Sing when it’s your turn, speakeasy when it’s not your turn.”
The group’s skills as an ensemble are apparent. In total there are four players on stage, while Samantha Jolly’s on-point narration from offstage deftly moves the plot along. The will-they-or-won’t-they between Courtney and accountant Bill (Seth Thomson) culminates in a hilarious use of miming — Bill and Courtney take turns sliding the beads on an abacus and both characters slowly and suggestively pull the crank on what might be an old-time slot machine.
I’m charmed by the cast’s ability to make this look so easy and also the moments when things, sort of, unravel at the seams. The entrance of various side characters kicks the absurdity up a notch, as when Frankie/Bill Senior/Mrs. Rothschild (Christopher Jones) ends up making out with a blond wig on a pink wig on a chair that is standing in as side character Tiffany. At one point he chooses to constrain himself to the simple two-word answer of “oh yeah,” no matter the question — this is done in the same and then different tones (but all in a high society lady’s voice) to great comedic effect.
After a bonus game of innuendo, which I wonder might have been an interesting way to start things off, the show is over. I’m entertained by the able spontaneity, and I return to mom life, a little lighter for the laughs.
“50 Shades of Velvet” can be seen at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Feb. 26. “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” Bellingham’s longest-running improv show, can be seen at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday throughout the year at the Sylvia Center for the Arts, 207 Prospect St. Tickets are $10-$15. Please be prepared to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. For details, go to www.theupfront.com
