For a comedy show, the Second City E.T.C.’s latest sketch revue, directed by Anthony LeBlanc, seems unusually poignant. The venerable theater’s offerings—particularly on the main stage—have long saved room for little bursts of sentimentality, but I don’t remember ever seeing a revue that felt quite as touchingly suffused with longing as this one does. We meet, among others, lonely online daters, roommates singing about the sorrow of parting when one gets a fiancee, and a fatherless tyke aching for a stepdad who’ll play Dance Dance Revolution with him.
If the goal was to capture the tenor of the times, the players have pretty much done it, and not just because they include a lot of jokes about smartphones (the best: a New Orleans–style funeral, complete with umbrellas and a trombonist playing “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” in honor of a commuter’s cracked iPhone). It’s scary out there, the show acknowledges, and the screens we’ve surrounded ourselves with only make us feel more alone. What we really want is to be comforted and understood and assured that it’s all gonna be OK. In their goofy, goodhearted way, the cast even oblige us there, ending the show with a campfire sing-along to an original ballad by music director Alex Kliner, called “Hold On.” v
Through 12/19: Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PM Second City E.T.C., Piper’s Alley 1608 N. Wells 312-337-3992secondcity.com $23-$48
