In terms of slickly produced sketch comedy, Second City remains one of the best deals in town. The troupe’s latest mainstage revue (its 93rd) is the kind of straightforward entertainment that won’t leave you embarrassed if you dragged friends and family down to Old Town in search of a good time. “War! Now In It’s 4th Smash Year!” features a solid cast—there are two new additions, including the ever-talented Ithamar Enriquez, bumped up from the e.t.c. stage—that tends to find comedy in even the most pedestrian of setups. What’s missing—and this is what’s always missing—is a sense of the unexpected. Some of the best comedy comes from writers and performers who let their raging ids tear around the place unimpeded, but that’s not Second City’s style. There’s something to be said for consistency, and you always know what you’re going to get at Second City. Which means, material that address matters romantic, political and racial. A Dave Chappelle-esque sketch about white slavery works, if only because Claudia Michelle Wallace, as the African-American slave owner, knows how to turn a subtle facial expression into a sly joke all its own. That’s the trend here; what the scripted scenes lack in wit, the actors make up for with witty physicality. Enriquez and the rubbery-faced Maribeth Monroe have a cute scene as a couple caressing one another in the shower, and Brian Gallivan—he of the guileless, naughty-boy humor—kills with a monologue about a young boy with cancer whose Make A Wish dream is dirty sex with George Clooney, and somehow gets Mr. Hollywood to comply. (Nina Metz)
