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I have a secret to tell. I’m a serious student, and I’ve sworn up and down to never drink while I’m reviewing a production. I at least wait until after the show. In this case, I broke my own rule. Wednesday was opening night of The Second City Does Baltimore at CENTERSTAGE, and this time Betsy’s bar (conveniently located at the back of the theater) was just too tempting. Come on, our seats were five steps away from the bar. I ordered a cranberry and vodka that was entirely too pink, even for the brightly colored plastic flamingos next to the purple row house set, and my fiance, Tom, ordered a Natty Boh.
The Second City is a Chicago based sketch and improvisation comedy group that cooks up personalized satire for each city it visits. The Second City Does Baltimore was directed by Matt Hovde, and T.J. Shanoff and Megan Grano wrote additional material for the show. The performance featured ensemble members Brett Lyons, Niccole Thurman, Tim Sniffen, Warren Phynix Johnson, Dana Quercioli, and Megan Wilkins, who each brought panache to the production. Not five minutes into the production, one of the company members did a sketch about how Natty Boh tastes like piss, and as I stared at Tom’s empty plastic cup, I was thankful for my perfectly pink cranberry and vodka.
The pre-written sketches were funny, but the ensemble really came alive when they were able to improvise. One of the best sketches of the night was when an unsuspecting audience member was chosen to participate in a whodunit about the case of a missing car stereo. Apparently it was his 50th birthday, so his friend put him up to it. Towards the end of the sketch, the audience member willfully shot the narrator, who reacted by giving him the finger. And who said acting wasn’t behaving truthfully in the given circumstances?
In the lobby, I overheard someone who worked on the show say that The Second City sent a team out to research what makes Baltimore, well, Baltimore. Of course, they made some predictable jokes about our corrupt mayors, bankrupt newspapers (I quite enjoyed the musical number about the demise of the Baltimore Sun), and low-performing Baltimore City Public Schools. But these skits were more than just cheap shots at Baltimore. In their words, “The Second City has always served as a bit of a tonic for times of difficulty and upheaval. It’s our job to laugh at what scares us, to make the unfunny funny, and to provide audiences with a chance to let go for a couple hours and just laugh.”
I would go a step further. Rather than give its audience a means of escape, good theater and performance forces the audience to reflect on what it has seen. Instead of providing an easy answer, (why are our public schools in such a state of destitution and how can we fix it) good theater throws the question right back at the audience. The Second City masterfully captured the working class culture that we are proud of as Baltimoreans. One skit featured three women all trying to prove their authenticity as a Hon. By parodying this aspect of Baltimore culture, The Second City showed its audience that Baltimoreans have a reason to be proud.
From Hairspray to The Wire the Musical (albeit a Second City invention), Second City showed how Baltimore has changed a tremendous amount over the last fifty years. And as the ensemble members said, Baltimoreans have at once fought and embraced that change. What made Second City Does Baltimore great is that it went beyond superficial commentary for material for the sketches. Instead, the ensemble members painted a surprisingly complex portrait of our city that left me both laughing and questioning what I had seen.
The Second City Does Baltimore
December 30 – February 20
CENTERSTAGE
700 North Calvert Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
410.332.0033
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