Freestyle Love Supreme, the new hip-hop improv show that opened on Broadway October 2, actually gets its name from the master jazz improviser: 鈥淚t was creator Anthony [Veneziale]'s love letter to [鈥淎 Love Supreme鈥漖 because he wanted us to have the freedom of John Coltrane improvising, that was the benchmark we were trying to reach,鈥� says FLS co-founder and producer of the Broadway show Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Miranda greeted 半岛体育 live on the red carpet in celebration of the show鈥檚 opening at the Booth Theatre. Miranda, Veneziale, and director Thomas Kail co-founded the musical improv troupe during their undergrad at Wesleyan. As they recruited members, they began performing downtown in New York and enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run at Ars Nova.
Now, the rotating cast鈥攚ith an even larger roster of special sporadic guest stars鈥攈its the Main Stem.
We asked Miranda and company about their improv tips and tricks, how they choose the words from the shouting audience (if you鈥檙e looking to get picked, take note), and who their favorite improv sparring partners are in the FLS crew.
For Miranda, how his brain turns a word into a song depends on the improv game. 鈥淚f it's at the top [of the show] where we're picking words out of the bucket [my brain] doesn't go anywhere. Just whatever the associations that come with that word. You see an ink blot test happening in front of you in real time.鈥�
Wayne Brady (Kinky Boots, Hamilton Chicago), who is also a special guest, explained his strategy: 鈥淚f you say 鈥榤ushrooms鈥欌擨 equate it to having a computer screen. All the things I know about mushrooms and mushroom caps and fungi and pigs rooting for truffles [come up and] you go, 鈥業 choose this and I choose this鈥� and let the story unfold. You have to tell a story otherwise it鈥檚 just rhyming words.鈥�
Beatboxer Chris Sullivan, aka Shockwave, taught viewers at home how to create a basic snare drum sound, while Veneziale revealed how he, as the MC, chooses the words from the audience to inspire their sketches. 鈥淲hen the audience has a gasp or a reaction to a word and less oxygen is in the room, that鈥檚 the word I go for,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he audience will generally tell you.鈥�
Which is why Miranda says that Freestyle Love Supreme is a group that was always meant to perform for a crowd鈥攏ot just each other. 鈥淚t was always the most magic when it was live,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 amazing is this is the only thing I do that I feel more energy when I've done it than when I started. It feeds In The Heights, it feeds Hamilton because it鈥檚 the only show that sharpens my tools for the other thing. So that fact that we get to just do this, you bring the ingredients and we make this meal, is incredible.鈥�
Miranda also revealed what to expect from his version of Piragua Man when the In The Heights movie comes out and what upcoming project he鈥檚 most excited about. Watch the video above for the full interview with Miranda, Brady, Sullivan, Veneziale, plus interviews with Tony winner Daveed Diggs, Andrew Bancroft, Tony nominee Christopher Jackson, and Utkarsh Ambudkar. The full cast also includes Arthur Lewis, Ian Weinberger, Bill Sherman, Aneesa Folds, Ashley P茅rez Flanagan, Kaila Mullady, and Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart.
READ: Who Will Be Performing in Broadway鈥檚 Freestyle Love Supreme?
