Subject: Messageboard Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 22:20:30 +1000 From: Mark Longmuir To: Mark Longmuir Katherine: A Second City review from the July 8th Toronto Star (11-Jul-1999 04:04:22) Katherine again: Whoops! Some extra paragraphs were acquired between typing that up in a word processor and transferring it here... (n/t) (11-Jul-1999 04:06:48) nattie: I'd just like to agree on that it was a really good show, and yes, I really fancy that Gavin Crawford (remember that book I bought, 'frine?) *g* (n/t) (11-Jul-1999 17:24:59) -- Mark Longmuir - longmuir@labyrinth.net.au Homepage: http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~longmuir/ Whose Line is it Anyway? - http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/8451 "Stop tap dancing, you fool!" --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Image] [Image] Whose Board is it, Anyway? A Second City review from the July 8th Toronto Star Sunday, 11-Jul-1999 04:04:22 137.186.224.200 writes: [I haven't seen anyone mention this review yet, so I typed it up for you all. Hopefully this will give the non-attendees at least a hint of the wonderful show we saw.] Humour's different, laughter's the same at The Second City New show features racier, but less topical, material By Leatrice Spevack Special to the Star [Picture] New Style: Second City cast members Doug Morency, left, and Gavin Crawford play Homosexual Millennium Dancers. Has The Second City gone soft, or could it be that the present cast is content with the status quo? Absent from its latest show, the the cumbersomely titled Nude Beach Wear: 100% Off, Or Hanlan's Don't Point, are the traditional pokes at well-known politicos, the jabs at headline happenings. Yet while Toronto natives may miss some swipes at Mel, Second City's 46th production still proves a romp, as its cast takes us on that familiar tour of smart sketches and songs, plus (less familiar) more than a little simulated sex. One sketch has effervescent cast member Tracy Dawson eager to impress her new beau with her "skills." Toward that end, she says to her gay brother (portrayed by Gavin Crawford), "I've never given a B.J. before. You're an expert, right?" If you're unfamiliar with the considerable skills -- make that talent -- of Crawford, he has deservedly been dubbed a wunderkind in both gay and straight comedy circles -- he was the Gay Pride cover boy for weekly newspaper Now, and won last year's Tim Sims Encouragement Fund for most promising local comic. Playing the straight man in this scene, he's marvellously unhelpful assisting his university-going sister. But he eventually gives in, the climax coming when Crawford performs air-fellatio on an invisible banana. It's this sort of risky business that's a welcome departure after years of somewhat safe shows on the bill at Second City. But the same material could be hard to swallow for some of Second City's corporate clientele, who help fill the seats at its large Blue Jays Way theatre. But envelope-pushing or not, the show's first half is slightly uneven, and some pieces need repair or retirement: Mary Pat Farrell's earnest folk singer tries to milk her boring music for laughs, but sadly we just get boring. At least that scene has brevity -- a brevity the Corn Game sketch could use. (The Corn Game, involving the entire six-member cast as a group of partnered pals, is Trivial Pursuit crossed with Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Players match clues that culminate in one's partner finding a connection to the word corn. It sounds as long as it feels.) But things start to roll when Lee Smart and Doug Morency, as lawyers, tell a joke about two monkeys going into a bar. They use convoluted legalese -- "a primate then responds in such a way that is congruent with his...monkeyness" -- making the sketch monstrously funny. And the entire cast comes on strong in the Miss Millennium Contest, setting the pace for a second act that soars. Replete with Crawford and Morency as the thrice-costume-changing Homosexual Millennium Dancers, it is a tour de force sketch that has ever-apologetic Miss Canada (Melody Johnson) competing against over-aggressive Miss U.S.A. (Dawson, who belts out a Streisand tune in the talent competition) and over-earnest Miss Rest Of The World (Farrell). Smart is brilliant as the spooked victim of a seemingly alien invasion. Beneath a single spotlight he reveals his tale of terror: "He comes out of the shadows. He's got this big square head and this nose -- all lumpy like a hot dog that's been on the barbecue too long. And he's got this plan for Ontario...." A welcome, if rare, nod to politics in the show. Best short vignette award goes to Dawson and Farrell for their interpretive chair dance with a punch line that must be reserved for the performance. And anyone who has willingly or unwillingly shared company with a cat will enjoy Johnson's impersonation of a jealous feline watching her owner trying to make hay with his date. Social service scammers, religious eminences and their interpreters -- all fall prey to the troupe's cleaver. Political correctness gets a thorough trouncing in the finale's song-and-dance routine, which addresses the show's title of nude beaches on the Toronto Islands. Cigarettes (and double entendres) get smoked: "Just lying on the beach, trying to get a tan. I think it's such a drag, that you're sucking on that...fag." Nude Beach Wear: 100% Off may be light on topical material, but it's still long on laughs. It plays at The Second City, 56 Blue Jays Way (343-0011). [Picture] The Hair Flies: Melody Johnson does excellent turn as jealous feline in Nude Beach Wear: 100% Off, Second City's latest review. Katherine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Message thread: Katherine: A Second City review from the July 8th Toronto Star (11-Jul-1999 04:04:22) Katherine again: Whoops! Some extra paragraphs were acquired between typing that up in a word processor and transferring it here... (n/t) (11-Jul-1999 04:06:48) nattie: I'd just like to agree on that it was a really good show, and yes, I really fancy that Gavin Crawford (remember that book I bought, 'frine?) *g* (n/t) (11-Jul-1999 17:24:59) Back to main board ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prev Page Next Page Now viewing page 5 of 6 (11-Jul-1999 04:04:22 to 09-Jul-1999 16:58:16) [Image] Message subject: Name: (optional) Email address: (optional) Type your message here: [Buy It!] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back to main board ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright © ITW Newcorp, Inc. 1997-1999 All rights reserved.