Over the past few years Second City has lived in my mind as a stale representation of the comedy world. While I’ll never deny the impact the theater/training ground had on some of my favorite talents, like Bill Murray and Chris Farley and the queen herself, Miss Tina Fey, the shows themselves haven’t broken free of the same sort of Murray-Farley-Fey formula. Yes, Second City revues will always be entertaining; I could watch comics do their own version of Chris Farley’s Matt Foley sketch over and over again and still laugh. But what the comedy club’s needed for years is something entirely different to prove it’s on the pulse—and that that pulse is going strong. The latest from the E.T.C. ensemble, A Red Line Runs Through It, is just that show.
A thread of social consciousness runs throughout the show. Sure, some jokes are a just plain funny, like Beasley struggling through an exercise video while the spunky Julie Marchiano replies with automated messages of encouragement. (“I’m dying!” Beasley cries. “Way to go!” answers Marchiano.) And there is, inevitably, an instance of a straight man in drag. But even that scene shows progress—far from simply mocking a man in a dress, the sketch revolves around gender fluidity, and said man in drag is played by the production’s sole white male.
Open run: Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PM, the Second City E.T.C.Theatre, 230 W. North, second floor, secondcity.com, $23-$48.
