Sitting at the back of No Exit Café, hearing the play of the piano within the dim room as the singers breathed life into sentiments older than myself, I caught a glimpse of an old world that was once new and fresh—a world, one imagines, in which the patrons of this “shabby waterfront bar” made love to their glasses as passionately as they made love to their women—as passionately as they rode and communed w
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In their 105the revue, the new management at The Second City has presented their six creator/performers a mixed bag of sketch comedy titles: The Winner…of our Discontent which asks if its broken, should we fix it? With post-election drama filled with rich comic possibilities, I was amazed at the lack of biting comedy in the group’s sketch bits about the election?. True there were some funny bits like the Cubs bat boy bit and the three guys watering the lawn but there were also several bits that just didn’t produce laughs.
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Add some clever tune mixed with holiday favorites deftly sung by power-voiced Meghan Murphy and This Way Outta Santaland is a precious, deeply human, holiday night of stories celebrating one of the funniest comic entertainers working in Chicago – Mitchell Fain
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Tunes from Funny Girl (lyrics by Bob Merrill) with like know shows that produced songs that became standards, this songfest produces one tuneful song after another. we remember songs like “The Party’s Over,” ” Don’t Rain on My Parade,” I’ve Heard That Song Before,” “It’s Been A Long Time,” “Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week, “It’s Magic, ” “Time After Time,” and “Make Someone Happy” and “People” are among the wonderful tunes that not only were sung expertly but presented with their meaning or spirit.
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Safe to say, the scope of topics played upon is wide enough that if you live in America and have Internet or cable, you’ll be heartily entertained.
This was only my second foray into Chicago’s sketch-comedy scene, but it’s not hard to see why The Second City is so highly regarded: the energy never lagged, the jokes always landed for someone (particularly the guy across the aisle from me), and the agit-prop nimbly toed the line between discomfort and comedy. I can’t imagine sketch comedy gets any better than this.
Read MoreConceived by Todd Olson & David Grapes Book by Todd Olson Directed by Fred Anzevino Music Direction by Jeremy Ramey
Read MoreThe Anyway Cabaret (an animal cabaret) is a strange but funny new musical from the creative team at TUTA. An amazingly talented cast of ten accompany each other in songs about animals that range from goofy to very sad.
Read MoreFred Anzevino and Jeremy Ramey have created a fine Christmas revue that is just the right thing for Saturday and Sunday matinee lovers who get-stressed by shopping. All they have to do is get to the No Exit Cafe in Rogers Park to hear four delightful singers and a fabulous piano and bass produce classic holiday tunes.
Read MoreDirector Brenda Didier and music director Jeremy Ramey have mounted a fabulous musical revue of the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller prolific composers of 60- 70’s pop, rick, R & B. blues and gospel tunes
Read MoreCombining duets and full ensemble harmonies and cute dance movements, Time After Time unfolds as a fun, silky tune fest that showcases the skills Jule Styne possessed making him one of the premier songwriters of the 20th Century.
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