Pippa Evans

Pippa Evans is an award-winning musical performer, writer, dramaturg and improviser.

A core member of the Olivier award-winning, critically acclaimed Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, Pippa has toured the UK and internationally, plus enjoyed West End residencies at the Lyric Theatre and The Other Palace. Pippa also co-hosts The Showstopper! Podcast, interviewing and improvising with West End musical theater performers and creatives. 

She is an experienced writer for the stage. Pippa wrote the NOW! That’s What I Call Musical, which will begin its tour in September 2024, directed by Craig Revel Horwood. Pippa was the dramaturg on the Savoy Theatre’s production of 9 to 5: The Musical, which toured the UK following its London residency. She was also commissioned to write an original song for the closing of The Jack Whitehall Christmas Special, which Jack performed.

A regular guest on BBC Radio 4’s comedy shows, Pippa can be heard on 15 Minute Musical and The Now Show as well as I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, with whom she has toured the UK multiple times. Pippa has also performed her original comedy songs on ITV’s Tonight At The Palladium.

Pippa co-created and performs in two improv groups: The Glenda J Collective and There Will Be Cake, both of which have performed sold out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at London’s Soho Theatre.

A talented and versatile actor, Pippa can be seen in the second season of critically acclaimed The End Of The F***ing World. She played the musical Normality’s Narrator in its 2019 debut production at The Other Palace and 2018’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival saw Pippa originate the role of Diana Purdy in comic play Brexit. Pippa reprised this role when the show transferred to London’s The King’s Head Theatre, following 4 and 5 star reviews and a sold out run.

Pippa created and hosts Parts I’ll Never Play, a live night at The Other Palace in which she interviews guests from the world of musical theater about their work and casting experiences, ahead of them performing a song by a character they could never be cast as. Pippa’s debut book, Improv Your Life: An Improviser’s Guide to Embracing Whatever Life Throws At You is ‘a wonderfully witty, charmingly personal guide to the art of improvisation, for the stage and life.’ (Deborah Frances White, The Guilty Feminist) It was published by Hodder Studio in February 2021.‘A highly talented improviser’ (The Guardian) Pippa also developed and leads the Improv Your Life course, which demonstrates how improvisation can be applied to everyday life. Her improv teaching has been featured in both The Telegraph and The Guardian.

As a solo musical comedy performer, Pippa has taken six shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Alongside securing a nomination for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Pippa has performed comedy across the world, including at Montreal’s prestigious Just For Laughs festival and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Awards

• Nominee: Amused Moose Comedy Award: Best Show 2014, 2016
• Winner: Chortle Awards: Sketch Variety or Character Act 2016
• Nominee: Best New Show: Leicester Comedy Festival 2015
• Nominee: Chortle Awards: Sketch Variety or Character Act 2013
• Nominee: Chortle Awards: Sketch Variety or Character Act 2009
• Nominee: Chortle Awards: Best Newcomer 2009
• Nominee: if.comedy: Best Newcomer 2008
• Winner: Funny Women Fringe Awards: Best Newcomer 2008
• Runner-Up: Hackney Empire New Act of the Year 2008
• Finalist: Nivea Funny Women Awards, 2008

As Part of Showstopper! Ensemble

• Winner: Olivier Award: Best Entertainment & Family 2016
• Winner: Mervyn Stutter’s Spirit of the Fringe Award 2009
• Nominee: MTM Awards: Best Production 2009
• Nominee: MTM Awards: Judges’ Discretionary Award 2009

Credits

Writing

• NOW That’s What I Call a Musical (Writer, UK National Tour)
• 9 To 5: The Musical (Dramaturg, West End and UK National Tour)

TV

• Victoria Wood: The Secret List (Guest, BBC2, 2020)
• The End Of The F**king World (1 Episode, Role of Registrar, Channel 4, 2019)
• Utterly Outrageous Comedy (Guest, Channel 5, 2019)
• Gareth Malone’s All Star Music Quiz (Guest, BBC2, 2018)
• Tonight at the Palladium (Performer, ITV1, 2017)
• Drunk History – Dr Crippen (Role of Ladies Guild Member, Comedy Central, 2016)
• Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (Guest, Dave, 2015)
• Drunk History –The Curse of Tutankhamun (Role of Conspiring Journalist, Comedy Central, 2015)
• The Dog Ate My Homework (Guest, CBBC, 2014-2015)
• Live at the Electric (Performing as Loretta Maine, BBC3, 2013–2014)
• Melbourne International Comedy Festival (Performing as Loretta Maine, Channel Ten, Australia, 2013)
• Fast and Loose (Performer, BBC2, 2011)
• The Morgana Show (Various Roles, Channel 4, 2010)
• The Slammer (Showstopper Performer, BBC1, 2010)
• The Wrong Door (Various Roles, BBC3, 2008)

Radio

• Pick of the Week (Radio Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2023)
• The Ultimate Choice (Radio Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2023)
• I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2016, 2019-2023)
• Just A Minute (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2016, 2020 & 2022)
• Cryering With Laughter: A Tribute To Barry Cryer (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2022)
• Blind-sided (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2022)
• The Unbelievable Truth (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2021-2022)
• Jeremy Vine (Guest, BBC Radio 2, 2021)
• Huge Rifkind’s News Review (Guest, Times Radio, 2021)
• Ayesha Hazarika’s Weekend Drive (Guest, Times Radio, 2021)
• The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected (Guest, BBC Radio Scotland, 2021)
• A Good Read (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2017 & 2019)
• The Leak (Guest, BBC Radio Wales, 2016 & 2019)
• 15 Minute Musical (Performer BBC Radio 4, 2012-2019)
• Pippa Evans Grows Up (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2018)
• The Now Show (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2011-2018)
• My Teenage Diary (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2018)
• Beyond Belief (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2018)
• Josh Howie’s Losing It (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2018)
• The Vote Now Show (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2017)
• Now The Twelfth Night Show (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2017)
• Breaking The News (Guest, BBC Radio Scotland, 2016)
• Newsjack (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2011-2014)
• The Golden Age (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2012)
• Les Kelly’s Britain (Guest, BBC Radio 4, 2011)
• Showstopper! (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2011)
• Bigipedia (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2009)
• Arthur Smith’s Balham Bash (Performing as Loretta Maine, BBC Radio 4, 2009)
• Newfangle (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2009)
• 4 Stands Up (Performer, BBC Radio 4, 2009)

Podcasts

• Drunk Women Solving Crime (Guest, 2021 & 2023)
• Richard Wiseman’s On Your Mind (Guest, 2023)
• The Gargle (Guest, 2022)
• Voyage of the Page Turner (Guest, 2021)
• RHLSTP with Richard Herring (Guest, 2018 & 2021)
• Seize the Day (Guest, 2021)
• The Showstopper! Podcast (Co-host, 2018-2020)
• Time To Think (Host, 2020)
• Inside the Comedian (Guest, 2020)
• The Scrummy Mummies Podcast (Guest, 2020)
• Livid (Guest, 2020)
• We Need To Talk About Podcast (Guest, 2019)
• Dave CALM Podcast (Guest, 2019)
• The Guilty Feminist (Guest, 2017-2018)
• Reasons to be Cheerful (Guest, 2018)
• The Comedian’s Comedian (Guest, 2017)

Books

• Improv Your Life (Hodder Studios, 2021)

Live

• Sunday Assembly (Creator & Performer, 2012-Present)
• Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2023)
• I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue (National Tour, 2022-2023)
• Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (Apollo Theatre, London 2015-2019)
• Normality (Role of Narrator, The Other Palace Theatre, 2019)
• Brexit (Role of Diana Purdy, Edinburgh Fringe Festival & King’s Theatre, London, 2018)
• There Will Be Cake (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2017-2019)
• Glenda J Collective (Soho Theatre, 2016-2018)
• Pippa Evans: Joy Provision! (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2017)
• Pippa Evans: Same Same But Different (Edinburgh Fringe Festival & Soho Theatre, 2016- 2017)
• Pippa Evans: There Are No Guilty Pleasures (Leicester Comedy Festival & Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015)
• Pippa Evans: Don’t Worry, I Don’t Know Who I Am Either (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2014)
• Loretta Maine: Bipolar (Edinburgh Fringe Festival & Melbourne Comedy Festival & Roadshow, 2012-2013)
• Loretta Maine: I’m Not Drunk, I Just Need To Talk To You (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2010)
• Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (Edinburgh Fringe Festival & National Tour, 2010-2015)
• Pippa Evans: Your Evening’s Entertainment (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2009)
• Pippa Evans and Other Lonely People (Edinburgh Fringe Festival & Soho Theatre, 2008-2009)
• Totally Looped! (UK National Tour, 2009)

Press

Press quotes for Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

Pippa Evans is the powerhouse of this offering…She excels in adapting to any singing style demanded and drives the action forward with smart, funny decisions.
Chortle

The great delight is to see such an ingenious and talented team throw everything at a show that must, by its very nature, vanish. Brilliant. ★★★★
Financial Times 

A tremendously good time…absolutely magical. ★★★★
Time Out 

A success story that could run and run and never repeat itself. ★★★★
Evening Standard 

Press quotes for solo work

A slick, well-packaged one-woman variety show – not to ignore the two musicians who back her – of songs, sketches and stories.
Chortle

She has mastered the art of crowd work…Evans brings unsheathed joy to a room
The List

She is a highly talented improviser.
There’s a wonderfully anarchic feel to this show…mostly due to Evans’s unbridled energy; you’ll be grinning for the rest of the day.
Guardian

Her capacity for accents is astonishing. 
The Skinny

You will fall in love with Evans within the first 5 minutes.
Her songs, ranging from an intense cover of Sex Bomb to originals, are not only well performed and extremely catchy but will have you in sustained laughter throughout. Evans’ ability to interact with her audience, come up with lyrics and make them funny is flawless.
Broadway Baby

Force of nature that is disturbed diva Loretta Maine…full of energy…unafraid and unpredictable.
The Stage

A delightful deconstruction of the ludicrousness of the pop world.
Broadway Baby

Delightfully deranged songs.
Metro

Comic talent and musical genius…catchy tunes, brilliant lyrics and gleeful cynicism.
Edinburgh Evening News

A fantastic wreck of a human being and a great comedy conception.
Chortle

Loretta Maine delivers musical character comedy of a high order. 
Time Out

Incredibly entertaining.
Three Weeks

A highly talented performer with a razor-sharp tongue…Maine is everything Lindsay Lohan wishes she could be.
Ed Fest Mag

Mean, mouthy and magnificent.
The Skinny

The story is entirely believable, the songs are great and the laugh quotient is high in a cracking show.
The Arts Desk

Her musical ability – guitar, banjo and voice especially – is exceptional
She shines through in her confident rapport with the audience and witty ad libs.
Australian Stage

Engaging, full of insidious warmth, delectable mal mots and great songs. 
The Independent on Sunday

A tight set of wicked lyrical rhymes laced with self loathing.
Metro

Evans uses the alter ego to supply amusingly barbed remarks on the music industry and neurotic young womanhood.
Guardian

Compelling to watch.
Chortle

Like Dolly Parton seen through the lens of Mike Leigh….she performs brilliantly observed songs about love, loss and violent revenge.
Guardian

A gifted comic actress with a skill for contriving memorably gruesome characters.
Scotsman