I’ve seen every mainstage show at Second City for 30 years. I can’t recall a cast ever lamenting from the stage how they don’t own their own material, a crucial aspect of the comedy emporium’s business model, let alone a cast throwing some edgy shade at the current private equity ownership — part of a “Sesame Street” spoof with puppets going after financial exploitation. But the don’t-mess-with-us crew in the 112th mainstage revue go there on one of their numerous anti-capitalist sketches. That’s gutsy, and good on the bosses for not making them take it out.
“The Devil is in the Detours” is a stylish show that, as ever, reveals much about where young improvisers are at these days. I tend to mark the changes in the world by these revues, invariably skilled and funny (with few exceptions over the years) but entirely different in aspiration. Long gone is the world where it seemed like everyone (regardless of race or gender) wanted to be John Oliver or the “Weekend Update” anchor. This group is far more explicitly performative, expanding into their spaces and continually looking for heavily physical material (such as singing and dancing Starbucks baristas), rather than tightening their bodies as one often saw happen in the past.
Speaking of spaces, longtime Second City-goers will be struck by the changes in the theater. The famed high “rail,” in place for half a century or more, has been lowered and the result is a slightly larger and notable more unified space with less of a central divide. It’s the opposite of the pandemic situation here, a time when laughs whistled around a theater with too few people and too much room.
The cast is a mix of veterans and newcomers: Andy Bolduc, at his best here when talking to a horse, is in on his third mainstage revue; Jordan Stafford, who has grown tremendously, is on his second; Laurel Krabacher has moved over from the e.t.c. Stage; newcomer Adonis Holmes is one of Second City’s past Bob Curry fellows; Hannah Ingle and Adisa Williams make their debuts after moving up from the touring companies.
Williams, the standout in this cast, is a major new find: she’s powerful, funny, fast on her feet and versatile. Keep your eye there.
But, in general, the cast is most adept at collaborative moments: Stafford and Holmes have a touching little scene that revolves around the gently absurdist question of “would you kill me if I were a zombie?,” as well as playing a pair of sister-like workers at the Chicago Public Library. Elsewhere, the two are joined by Williams, forging a trio of stellar Black performers who clearly enjoy and trust each other. I’d say this show didn’t even fully exploit the potential there; somebody could develop something for all three of them.
Participation sketches are very solid: the main one involves pulling a person from the audience and turning them into a fashion model, albeit with a coda that tells them they should be themselves, which is very 2020s, of course. Elsewhere, you can see the perennial millennial fear of being misunderstood fully on view, whether that involves a baby at Trader Joe’s or the feelings of a potential lover. There’s worry in this show, but that gives it its depth.
The revue does have a tendency to stay with certain scenes too long (a pity because the few blackout sketches are very funny) and there is one bust toward the end, a “Bridgerton”-like affair that just went nowhere slowly, at least on opening night. There would be better ways to send off the audience given the quality of what has gone before.
But aside from the willingness to risk, I like the theatricality of this show, especially since I recently saw the much less developed New York revue alongside an audience that clearly had little idea of what Second City is about. This show would have enlightened those Gothamites; my hope for all stages is that this core is never compromised.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “The Devil is in the Detours” (3 stars)
When: Open run
Where: Second City Mainstage, 1608 N. Wells St.
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $47-$101 at 312-337-3992 and secondcity.com
