Review: ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Glow!’ is a zany new revue at Second City e.t.c.
For anyone who ever imagined that it would be a trip to watch Second City stoned, or who perhaps made a habit of doing just that during the 1960s or 1970s, the cast of the new show on the e.t.c. Stage has a sweet, retro gift.
“A cloud of mushrooms was sent through the ventilation system,” they announce, before shifting into their let’s-call-it-psychedelic mode. “Did you not read the PDF that came with your tickets?”
Funny and gutsy, like much else in the new revue, “Oh the Places You’ll Glow!” is an atypically wacky, goofy and yet warm-centered show that put me in mind of all the different trends I’ve seen in 30 years of reviewing every single revue on Wells Street.
When alum Stephen Colbert and British satirist John Oliver first became famous, every cast member seemed to sport a neat little tie and a crisp white shirt.
Here, not so much. There were some lovely throwbacks to the classic 1990s revues, including a moving mother-and-daughter sketch performed by Meghan Babbe and Leila Gorstein, both very much their own women but doing stuff in this show that puts you in mind of the classic Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch routines.
Gorstein is, for me, the big new e.t.c talent (directed by Jeff Griggs), although this is a generally stellar cast mostly moving up from the funny factory’s touring companies and well picked for their ability to stylistically complement each other.
Tall and angular, Gorstein has fun bending herself through her repertoire of right angles and yet her work also comes with the rhetorical rush of a Sarah Silverman-like standup. Most Second City performers are either most adept at physical comedy or at the kind of verbosity that could also work behind a “Weekend Update” desk. Gorstein, who can focus the audience, stoned or otherwise, with just the raising of one eyebrow, can do both. She’s vulnerable on stage, too, a crucial quality in comedy and one that has been in short supply here in recent years.
Local content also has been missing of late and this show readdresses that balance. There’s a takedown of the crime tours that ply their trade in Chicago with their fake Tommy guns and Italian outfits, showcasing the nicely acerbic Claudia Martinez, some fun at the expense of the Lincoln Park Zoo and even nefariousness going on after hours at Jewel. The Jewel sketch particularly showcases the detailed physical work of Tim Metzler, who clearly has studied hard the muscular dynamics of pushing a shopping cart as the world goes mad.
Also restored is the relationship with the audience, which came to be viewed as a kind of enemy here for a while. Not at this show. People were so enthused they started doing things that they were not asked to do: I’m not talking about heckling or undermining, but a kind of organic fusion with the performers that I really have not seen here in quite a while. Frankly, seeing performers like Martinez, Jordan Savusa and the zany Brittani Yawn beaming so often at their customers, and clearly enjoying a Mary from Maine, or whomever, warmed the cockles o’ the old heart.
Everybody had a great time and the real-people applause was notably enthusiastic. The show does use a bit too much recorded sound, I think, which sometimes gets in the way, and I was bummed when the show punted after a guy in the audience shouted his home country as Vietnam. “We’re not touching that,” came the response, and that was a funny line, but the guy right by me still looked disappointed. He’d showed up and expected some fun at his own expense. That kind of challenge, long a feature of this company but now scary for performers, still needs work.
Elsewhere, you get several windows into similarly moralistic millennial angst.
Is it OK to sleep with someone with whom you do not politically align, is the subject of one funny sketch. One posited solution from Metzker’s master of expedient choices is to make like you are in an Uber and “request a silent ride.”
No mushrooms required.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “Oh, The Places You’ll Glow” (3.5 stars)
When: Open run
Where: Second City e.t.c. in Piper’s Alley, 230 W. North Ave.
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $39-$59 at 312-337-3992 and www.secondcity.com
