'Freestyle Love Supreme' Keeps Audiences Hooked At Kimmel Cultural Campus' Miller Theater
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Imagine a performance that combines hip-hop, improv, and audience input featuring some of Broadway's most famous stars. It's a show called "Freestyle Love Supreme' and you have a chance to see one of its creators – Lin Manuel Miranda.
He'll be in Philly at the Miller Theater, along with one of his Grammy and Emmy winning co-stars -- a face CBS viewers will recognize.
The performance is filled with spontaneity and rhythm.
"It's called 'Freestyle Love Supreme,'" Christopher Jackson said. "This show infuses the audience, it infuses us as artists, with just the impulse and creativity.
Before Jackson starred in the original cast of "Hamilton" on Broadway and joined the CBS's hit show "Bull," the improv theater show "Freestyle Love Supreme" is where he forged friendships with this group nearly 20 years ago, including "Hamilton" co-star, Manuel Miranda.
"When you see Hamilton and Washington on stage, it's a bond that was formed back in 2003 with Freestyle Supreme," Jackson said.
Janelle Burrell: "How do you prepare for a show like this?"
Jackson: "You wake up, and you show up. We never know what show we're going to have when we walk on stage, which is pretty uncommon for theater of this scale."
What keeps it really interesting is that they take live suggestions from the audience.
"We have a framework that is loosely based on short-form improv games and we've musicalized everything," Jackson said.
Keeping audiences hooked right through the final notes.
"My hope is that Philly can come and just take the load off," Jackson said. "We don't come with any pretense. We come ready to make fools of ourselves at the expense of ourselves, for the entertainment of the audience, which is the true spirit of what theater should be."
The beauty of 'Freestyle Love Supreme' is that no two shows are alike.
It's on stage right now at the Kimmel Cultural campus' Miller Theater.
James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony award for playing Genie in "Aladdin" on Broadway, is also in the cast.
Manuel Miranda will be performing for one night only on Friday. Jackson will be in the ensemble on Saturday and Sunday night.
