Having heard many good things about Game Called Chat’s Smile, It Might Never Happen, I was incredibly excited to be sitting down in a packed crowd to watch 5 performers make up an entire musical in just under an hour.
Smile, It Might Never Happen is the improvised musical comedy based entirely on the audience’s own anxieties for the future. The show begins with a short interview with a selected audience member about an event they have coming up in the near future – the event itself, the people involved and importantly, their fears of what could go wrong. The actors then create a completely improvised musical based on this information, with live piano accompaniment.
What is apparent from the off is that each performer is incredibly comfortable playing alongside each other, something that is undoubtedly incredibly important when it comes to long-form improv. Game called chat have been with each other since 2025, and brought this very show to the Fringe last year so the actors are in their element.
Zoe Cousin took on the part in the musical that could probably be argues as the “Lead” and she does so with commitment and confidence. Cousin knows when to take over a moment or when to hand it off to someone else, and also how to set up a moment that is meant to mess with her co-star in the scene, something delightfully inclusive for the audience to pick up and enjoy also.
Will Jackson is the person you want to cover all bases. You need a female student late for class? You got it. Need a bullet to fly through the air? Will’s there. A backing dancer is needed during this chorus? On it. Jackson never stops, always switched on to any possibility and making every moment funnier because of it.
Laura Walsh was another excellent piece of this fun show. Walsh also commits herself fully to everything and the audience enjoy watching her make strong choices.
Luke Pierce Powell offers up some incredibly entertaining accent work and physicality. A slight misunderstanding towards the end only added to the laughs, making up for it perfectly and having a little bit of Jackson to the rescue helped pull together a strong ending to the story.
Izzy Loyd didn’t have as much to do but added lots of quality in backing dancing and vocals then comes in strong towards the end with a very important character and hilariously emotional solo. Proving an incredible ability to maintain focus all the way to the end.
The musical part of the musical impro would be nothing without Oscar Cooper-Spriggs’ experience and talent on the piano. He watches his performers and follows them wherever they go while also expertly guiding them to melodies and choruses with his patience and observation.
Overall, Smile, It Might Never Happen is a delightful, incredibly fun and truly impressive feat of Fringe Theatre. There are some staple, household names in musical improv that return every year to the fringe, but this small group of supremely talented actors is gaining traction and may soon rise to the same level of recognition, as the quality is already of the same standard as the very best.
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whatson/smile-it-might-never-happen
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