Baby Richard’s Got Back, or It’s Not Easy Being Bob Greene, Second City E.T.C.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The standard is set by the songs; music director Jeff Richmond makes them as solid and multilayered as the sketches. In the opening rouser a dour minister’s family, who thrive on other people’s sorrows, are ecstatically transformed by an Afro UFO, a soul starship that teaches them the glories of funk. Equally sharp numbers include a skewering of John Hildreth’s 30th birthday (with glorious glumness, he contrasts his unfinished life with those of early-blooming geniuses), a Benny Hill-style country ballad detailing current “faux pas,” and a clever tribute to the ability of Cliff Notes to reduce classics to cliches. Though a few sketches have bumpy endings, they’re all perfectly tailored to this ripe ensemble. Dee Ryan and Jim Zulevic superbly clone a helplessly bratty sister and the reluctant brother who looks after her despite his every instinct. As two nutso patients vying for territory in a waiting room, Hildreth and Aaron Rhodes reinvent slapstick. Joined in a demented dance for Bosnia (the one political moment), Ryan and Miriam Tolan rampage through an inventory of literally empty gestures (but a skit about UN peacekeepers enjoying fart imitations underachieves). Best is a beautifully built sketch that focuses on rivalry in a high school band; it will open up a flood of buried memories.
