The Absolute Best Friggin’ Time of Your Life At
Second City e.t.c. By Dan Zeff CHICAGO—The latest
Second City e.t.c. revue may not be the best in the company’s history, but it
certainly can claim to be the noisiest. Seldom has there been so much screeching,
screaming, and ranting on a Second City stage, further amplified by a sound
track that puts severe stress on the eardrums. The revue is exuberantly called “The Absolute Best Friggin’
Time of Your Life.” The title doesn’t suggest that the audience is going to
have a super great time, which it likely will not. The name refers to a concept
of taking us back a generation to the 1980’s and 1990’s, when life was
better—plenty of money, plenty of employment, no wars. It’s a theme with lots
of satirical and nostalgic possibilities, except that after the opening
introductory number, the revue pretty much disregards the concept and just goes
its own way. Much of the material is performed at ear-splitting decibel
levels. Nuance and subtlety are not sought after in this staging. Neither is
political even handedness. Right wing America takes a severe thumping
throughout the revue, with the performers lambasting the Republican Tea Party
contingent and generally kissing off the right wing as hysterical, empty-headed
extremists. Second City has always attracted a liberal young audience and the
opening night crowd reacted with loud approval to snipes at Sarah Palin, George
Bush, right wing Obama haters, and man-on-the-street GOP followers—all loud,
thoughtless, self righteous bigots. The revue’s skits fall into hit-or-miss categories. Even the
more successful bits went on beyond their content shelf life, like a black
comedy love song or an odd bit involving a spoken word adult education class.
There was one raucous rap number called “Rubenesque” performed by the company’s
three females in skintight spandex that celebrated full figured femininity for
way too long for a one-joke number. Then there was one of the anti-right wing
skits that showed a man awakening from a 10-year coma. During the skit, the man
repeatedly spit water into the face of another character. Pretty funny the
first time, but then… The most offbeat sketch of the night paired a white performer
(Tom Flanigan) and a black performer (Christina Anthony). The setting is a
hospital and the characters are a doctor and a nurse. Halfway through the
sketch the audience learns that there is racial role reversal. The white man
plays a black hospital supervisor and the black woman plays a hostile white
underling. After a few minutes of laughs the sketch turns serious before
exiting on a wisecrack. The audience didn’t know quite how to take the sketch
that started out comic and then suddenly shifted into moments of intense drama. The only improvisation in the show came near the end when a
young lady was plucked from the audience to go back in time as the prom date
for Brendan Jennings (who delivered much of the howling and shrieking during
the revue). The audience member wasn’t required to do much more than stand around,
but she was a good sport and the company mined plenty of chuckles from her
presence. The ensemble, other than Anthony, Flanigan, and Jennings,
consisted of Tom Baltz, Mary Sohn, and Beth Melewski. The cast’s capabilities
are hard to assess because of the unevenness of the material and the tendency
to lapse into too much sound and fury. Billy
Bungeroth directs the production with a wide-open throttle. Donnell Williams
and Brenda Didier are the choreographers and Jesse Case the musical director.
Case clearly likes his music fortissimo, abetted by percussion at the pounding
level of Kodo Drummers. The revue title uses a euphemism for a much saltier F word,
which nonetheless was used abundantly during the show. Maybe the increased use
of profanity in recent Second City revues is a sign of the times, but I don’t
remember Alan Arkin, John Belushi, and Barbara Harris swearing so much in the
old days. “The Absolute Best Friggin’ Time of Your Life” is playing an
open run at the Second City e.t.c. cabaret theater, 1608 North Wells Street.
Performances are Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 and 11 p.m., and
Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $22 and $27. Call 312 337 3992 or visit www.secondcity.com. The show gets a rating of three stars. May 2010 **************************************************************************************** At
Second City e.t.c. By Dan Zeff CHICAGO—“Rush
Limbaugh! The Musical” is precisely what liberal audiences expect from the new
Second City Theatricals revue, an all-out lampoon of the controversial and
polarizing conservative radio pundit. But as if to show that the revue’s brain trust is an equal
opportunity hatchet wielder, “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical” also takes gleeful
potshots at the Democrats. But make no mistake, it’s Limbaugh and the radical
right in America who are in the show’s cross hairs. The revue is the work of Ed Furman (book) and T. J. Shanoff
(music and lyrics). They composed the recent satirical hit “Rod Blagojavich
Superstar,” a show most people liked more than I did. The Limbaugh work is
funnier, sharper, tighter, wittier, and more cautionary. Possibly this show is
better because Limbaugh is a worthier and more stimulating subject than Blago.
Rush Limbaugh! The Musical
The revue runs 80 minutes without an intermission and takes
the form of a documentary survey of Limbaugh’s rise from an obscure small town
radio disc jockey to national eminence as seen from the perspective of the year
2014, after Limbaugh’s nemesis Barak Obama was elected to a second term as
president. The show pulls no punches. Furman and Shanoff portray Limbaugh as a
racist, sexist manipulator of the truth with an unswerving eye toward building
his image, his influence, and his wealth. The documentary is narrated by a young black woman named
Shasta, played with a nice sense of irony by Karla Beard, who possesses the
only trained singing voice in the ensemble. The revue displays assorted
characters who pass through Limbaugh’s life, like his loony tune father, Ann
Coulter, an on-the-make preacher named the Reverend Rightwing, and Donald
Rumsfeld and Karl Rove presented as an Abbott and Costello pair of clowns. But
they are all mere lay figures to Limbaugh’s rise to political celebrityhood as
the numero uno voice of the far right conservatives. Hal Sutton evokes a credible physical image of the fleshy
Limbaugh and has his vocal mannerisms and has the man’s body language down pat.
His Limbaugh is a smarmy opportunist who may or may not believe all the
nonsense he spouts about minorities, women, immigrants, and gays. The revue
also endows Limbaugh with a messianic complex that could be literary license
or it could be prophetic.
As a counterweight, the revue injects Hilary Clinton and
Barney Frank, as Limbaugh antagonists, both with satirical bull’s-eyes on their
backs as symbols of a bumbling, wavering, wishy washy Democrat party. The show
has fun with Frank’s sexual preferences and especially with Clinton when she
was a hippie Hilary Rodham and now, when she is Hilary Clinton and singing
plaintively for respect. Colleen Murray is superior as the woman, climaxed by
Hilary’s “Respect” song. The comic portraits of the Democrats are outrageous enough,
but the revue’s heart resides in the anti-Limbaugh, anti-George Bush,
anti-conservative camp. The show delivers most of its satirical thrusts through its
score, a collection of bright and knowing songs featuring Shanoff’s ingenious
rhymes. The creators have done their homework and they happily turn Limbaugh’s
words and ideas against him. Furman and Shanoff presume their audience knows
Limbaugh and his brand of conservatism, and they milk the man’s crackpot ideas
(at least to liberal ears) to the max, volleying additional comic assaults at
Limbaugh’s lack of formal education, his social and political tunnel vision,
and his pill popping. The score is a pastiche of Broadway tunes, and spectators can
make a running parlor game out of identifying original sources for the numbers.
I spotted borrowings from “Les Miserables,” “Wicked,” “Rent,” “A Chorus Lines,’
“Grease,” and “Cabaret” and I doubtless missed at least a half dozen other musical
references. In addition to Sutton, Murray, and Beard, the ensemble
consists of Bumper Carroll, Kevin Sciretta, and Cayne Collier (especially good
as the Reverend Rightwing). This is a really funny show, performed at a brisk
pace under Matt Hovde’s knowing direction. The production avoids the smugness
and self-satisfaction that can afflict political satire. A few of the scene
transitions are a little awkward but that can be ironed out. Shanoff also
serves as musical director and leads the accompanying trio from his
keyboard. Lisa McQueen devised the
bouncy and sometimes droll choreography. The production currently runs only three performances a week,
sharing the stage space with the regular Second City e.t.c. revue. But positive
word of mouth should lead to a transfer to another theater for a regular run. “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical” plays through March 24 at the
Second City e.t.c. cabaret, 1608 North Wells Street in Piper’s Alley.
Performances are Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $25. Call 312 337 3992 or visit www.secondcity.com. The show gets a rating of 3 1/2 stars February 2010. **************************** Studs Terkel’s Not Working At
Second City e.t.c. By Dan Zeff CHICAGO—The
new revue at SecondCity
e.t.c. is so funny that spectators may not recognize at first the audacity of
the show. There are skits on race and gender and politics that really push the
envelope, but the bits are wrapped around so many laughs that the material
seems safer than it really is. The revue, number 33 in e.t.c. history, is called “Stud’s
Terkel’s Not Working,” a salute to Terkel, the patriarch of Chicago culture for
decades, who died last year. One of Terkel’s best-known books is called
“Working” and explores how Chicagoans work and what they think about their
jobs. In the spirit of Terkel’s life and
writings, the revue delves heavily into Chicago, its neighborhoods, its sex
life, its politicians, and the gripes of ordinary residents trying to survive
in a dire economic and social climate. Almost all the revue’s material is blue ribbon, and even the
lesser sketches and blackouts have some comic value, thanks to a superior six-member
ensemble deftly directed by Matt Hovde. At my performance an understudy named
Cayne Collier substituted for regular Timothy Edward Mason and turned out to be
the star of the show, delectably combining his performing skills with some
razor sharp material. That Second City could plug in an understudy with such
talent again validates the depth of the performing pool at this exalted cabaret
institution.
Collier showed most brightly as the leader of one of the
revue’s several improvisation sketches. He impersonates the author of
hard-boiled detective stories who plucks a ringside patron from the audience to
play his detective hero. There is always a certain amount of luck in any
improv, and Collier was fortunate in picking a young man who flowed into the
sketch with good cheer and some wit. Still, Collier’s manipulation from the
stage was masterful and the bit was a hoot from first line to last. Collier was also half of
skit about two gay men lightly bickering at home. One daring sketch portrays a tour bus ride that features a
severely disabled tourist in a wheelchair who speaks with the aid of a computer
voice simulator. When a show can extract
belly laughs from that hugely politically incorrect premise, you know the
evening is on the right track. In probably the most startling skit of the evening, Christina
Anthony plays an African American woman from Chicago’s South Side who hawks
“regular black children” for adoption by white couples. Why go all the way to
Africa to adopt a black baby when there is such a plentiful supply available
around 63rd street? The bit is funny (it would be grotesque
otherwise) and it also explores racial notions that can churn the spectator’s
mind after the laughter subsides. The show satirizes racial stereotypes in a sketch about how
upscale white Chicagoans try to prove their hip-ness by assuming ludicrous
black affectations. And Barack Obama is tweaked for the quality of his
blackness in a very funny group sketch portraying six former U.S. presidents
exhibited in a Hall of Presidents. George Bush gets his share of ribbing but so
does William Henry Harrison, probably the least memorable president in American
history. Collier dominates a second act bit exhorting the crowd to
fight the Chicago political machine and soliciting suggestions about what
outrages city residents the most. The suggestions probably are the same every
performance, led by taxes and the parking meter nightmare. But what could have
been a predictable exercise in civic indignation is hilarious, thanks to Collier’s
high-energy sense of grievance. Andy St. Clair, Amanda Blake Davis and Tom Flanigan are the senior members
of the ensemble with newcomer Beth Melewski. Along with
Collier (and presumably Mason) and Anthony they all mesh perfectly.
Second City revues have never been concerned with glitzy
physical effects but the e.t.c. stage has replaced the traditional rear doors
with translucent panels that allow for some nice visual effects, courtesy of
Kevin Depinet and Amy Jackson (set design) and Lee Brackett’s lighting. Credit
Michael Descoteaux for fine musical accompaniment. But it’s the actors and
their words that hold sway in this very successful slice of edgy comedy. “Studs Terkel’s Not Working” is playing an open run at the
Second City e.t.c. cabaret theater, 1608 North Wells Street. Performances are
Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 and 11 p.m. and
Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 and $25. Call 312 337 3992 or visit www.secondcity.com. The show gets a rating of four stars. August 2009 Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com. ************************** Brother, Can You Spare Some Change? At
Second City e.t.c. By Dan Zeff CHICAGO—Given
the turbulent national and international headlines these days, anticipation ran
high that SecondCity
e.t.c. would come out with its satirical knives flashing in the company’s new
revue. The targets have seldom been riper—the new president-elect, the economy,
the war in Iraq. The revue’s title of “Brother, Can you Spare Some Change?”
promised a topical look at the state of the union, and the evening began with
much promise, delivering a singing hymn to Barack Obama as the super hero who
will save our country and the human race. After that droll introductory number,
the evening was pretty much hit or miss. Whether the individual sketches were bull’s-eyes or flubs,
the performance level was exceptionally high from a veteran e.t.c. nucleus of
Amanda Blake Davis, Timothy Edward Mason, and Andy St. Clair, supplemented by
Laura Grey and Tom Flanigan and highly promising newcomer Christina Anthony. The best bit of the night was the first act finale in which
the full cast went into opera mode to lampoon Mayor Daley and especially his
plans to lure the Olympic Games to Chicago. The number particularly harvested
some stiletto wit through the use of subtitles. The evening was also fortunate in its improv segments, all of
which focused on an audience member. Anthony was funny and authentic as the
leader of a Supremes-style singing trio flirting with an audience member named
Andrew. St. Clair started the second act as a bumbling old Southern lawyer
defending an audience member on a murder charge. The bit went on a little too
long but St. Clair still milked it for plenty of laughs. And a young woman was
pulled out of the audience to participate in a mimed pool game with very funny sound
effects. Perhaps the most telling skit of the night skewered the
economy bailouts dispensed from Washington. A family comes to their senator’s
office to ask for a $63,000 bailout to help them through the present hard
times. The family then reads off a litany of multi billion dollar bailouts
already granted to major corporations, which, if divided about America’s
families, would average $72,000 a household. This bit earned rueful applause as
well as laughs from the audience. Unfortunately, there were too many concepts that didn’t work.
Laura Grey, a perky young talent, got trapped in a pointless monologue about
Amelia Earhart and a one-joke sketch about a magic act gone wrong. Blake dashed
through a sales pitch on how to accelerate the grieving process, as odd an idea
for a comic sketch as I’ve seen at Second City in a long time. Flanigan played
a hardhearted boss who trotted out a Cockney waif (poor Laura Grey again) to
defuse an employee’s legitimate request for time off or more money. Very peculiar and not very funny. The revue touched some familiar topical bases, like a couple
pondering the positives and negatives of having an interracial baby. There was
a bit about facebooks, and a dialogue between a stateside young man and his
military brother in Iraq that brought the dangers of the war home with
disturbing realism beneath the humor. Mason got an opportunity to display his
acting chops as a young man who has a nervous breakdown in a supermarket
checkout line. The blackout quickies were mostly spot-on, like a fast bit
that defuses the importance of trigonometry to the average person. And the
funniest line of the evening regrettably is also unprintable, but it deals with
the fragrance of incense candles. The revue ends on an unusual touchy-feely note as the
ensemble urges the country to “Hang on” while Obama tries to fix the mess we
are in. It’s an elegiac counterpoint to the opening satirical number, with its
heart in the right place but not what one usually expects from an edgy Second
City revue. Behind the scenes, Bruce Pirrie is the director and Camellia
Koo designed the basic set, which abandons Second City tradition by omitting
the customary rear stage doors. Performers enter and exit from the wings.
Michael Descoteaux is the efficient musical director. “Brother, Can You Spare Some Change?” is playing an open run
at the Second City e.t.c. cabaret theater, 1608 North Wells Street.
Performances are Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 and 11 p.m., and
Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 and $25. Call 312 337 3992 or visit www.secondcity.com. The show gets a rating of three stars. December
2008 Contact Dan at zeffdaniel@yahoo.com.
*************************
Campaign Supernova
at Second City e.t.c.
By Dan Zeff
CHICAGO—The latest SecondCity e.t.c. revue is funny, incisive, and may be introducing the institution’s next big star to local audiences.
The name of the revue, the company’s 31st, is “Campaign Supernova, or How Many Democrats Does It Take to Lose an Election?” The title suggests we are in for an evening of satirical salvos aimed at Election Year 2008, and so we are. The revue takes shots at both parties, all three presidential candidates, the electoral process, and the voters. The tone is rueful, comical, slightly on the liberal side, with just a tinge of anger.
But “Campaign Supernova” isn’t just about McCain and Hillary and Obama and the Democrats and Republicans. The revue saves some of its most pointed and humorous material for nonpolitical targets, especially the pretensions of those who fancy themselves hip, with it, and in.
Now it’s time to talk about Megan Grano. Like all but one of
the six-member e.t.c. ensemble, she is new to the Second City stage. Spano is a
willowy young lady who can act and sing and moves with a dancer’s grace.
Facially, she looks like a youthful Diane Keaton and she is terrific. Spano
first gets the stage to herself as feisty Kate Martin, a woman who sets herself
up as a guru for saving money. In working off the audience, Grano demonstrates
a quick wit and a skill at improvising that stands high in the lofty Second
City tradition.
Grano is the eye catcher in the revue but her five colleagues are all top drawer. This may be the best e.t.c. unit in recent years and if they stay together they should provide some magical moments on Wells Street. A pixyish Laura Grey pulls off the very tricky bit of impersonating Charlie Chaplin, bringing a customer on stage for several minutes of inspired mime. Timothy Edward Mason lectures a ringside spectator on how to be popular by dumbing down. Amanda Blake Davis, Tom Flanigan, and Andy St. Clair (the only e.t.c. veteran in the cast) all have splendid moments, individually and as a group.
The show does not hide from risk taking. One of the funniest and best-written skits comes in the second act and it deals with multiple sclerosis. One of the six people at a gather of friends has MS, a condition she has been nurturing for sympathy for years, and her friends are weary of it. Not a promising line for comedy but it works joyously, especially when Spano deadpans “This may surprise you, but some people think I’m bitchy.”
There is a great musical duet between St. Clair and Mason that touches all the bases on politically incorrect stereotypes. Flanigan and St. Clair play a pair of inept 7th grader basketball players who ride the bench for their school team. The bit is a little long but still amusing. A soon to be married young man confesses to his bride to be that beneath his liberal trappings he is a closet conservative. The three females in the cast sing a sprightly close harmony number with a title that cannot be mentioned in family company that surveys the sexual peccadilloes of our political leaders.
And so it goes—original and humorous material deftly
delivered. It’s been fashionable to complain that Second City isn’t breaking
enough new ground and that its edge isn’t cutting enough. But how many
different ways can a comedy ensemble poke fun at the national political scene,
the economy, and our prejudices—the fodder that feeds the Second City comedy
machine? “Campaign Supernova” doesn’t reinvent the wheel in this show, but gets
highest marks for sprucing up its familiar subject matter with wit and
invention. The musical finale actually says something fresh about that most
abused of current political buzzwords, “change.”
Director Matt Hovde gives the revue a fine sense of pace. His performers were really ready for opening night and the production was tight and well rehearsed, without losing its spontaneity. There is some especially creative use of slide projections and recorded sound.
Virtually all of the sketches and blackouts have a strong finish, a deficiency in some previous productions. There isn’t improvisation in the traditional sense but all the members of the company know how to maximize interaction with the spectators to terrific comic effect, like engaging the customers in a pop quiz on voting. And there is Megan Grano. Catch her now and get in on the ground floor of what should be a sky’s the limit career.
“Campaign Supernova” is playing an open run at Second City e.t.c., 1608 North Wells Street. Performances are Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 and 11 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $19 and $25. Call 312 337 3992.
The show gets a rating of four stars. May 2008
For more information contact www.secondcity.com.
Contact Dan: zeffdaniel@yahoo.com