Call Second City E.T.C.`s current revue a magnificent failure, an ambitious, full-length theatrical sendup, mildly interesting to drama buffs and probably out of left field for the tried-and-true improv regular.
”The Heliotrope Players` Production of Thornton Wilder`s American Classic, `Our Town,` As Directed by d`Eric Blakemore” is, for once, no mere title tease. The cast does indeed present a full-length walk-through of Wilder`s classic scenario, complete with a folksy, tweedy, mannerly stage manager (the marvelous Kevin Michael Doyle); a graveyard finale wherein Emily Webb, upon her arrival, screeches at the top of her lungs, ”I`m in the wrong cemetery”; and a network of twinkling white lights that illuminate the ceiling and briefly echo Wilder`s pastoral joys and beauties.
There are in-jokes from start to finish, to tickle local theater patrons and leave most others scratching their heads. The director in the title, for instance, is probably a play on Steppenwolf Theatre`s Eric Simonson and British director Michael Blakemore, while one of the corpses in the graveyard sports a can of pork and beans on his head, a reference to a legendary Second City skit.
Otherwise, the outstanding cast members try every trick imaginable to pump up and energize a skit that, almost by definition, is too expanded to accommodate typical Second City nonsense. The nonsense that results is pure Second City half of the time, beginning with the dysfunctional portrayal of Wilder`s two polarized families, and of the super-hormonal romance between their offspring, George and Emily. In lieu of Wilder`s idyllic portrait of the next-door young lovers, here George makes use of their neighborly proximity to peep on Emily taking a shower.
The mania, and mania it is, ranges from the topical (Wilder`s play is set in New Hampshire, so the recent primary gets tossed about) to the strangely surreal, including a bizarre hybrid ghetto in this ”Our Town” made up of Poles and Hispanics and called Po-Latino Land.
The revue is at its best when it cheats and slips into old-fashioned, non sequitur, Second City side trips, beginning with a hatefully dark opening with the sensational Rose Abdoo as Natalie Cole in one corner and an urn of ashes, a microphone dutifully placed nearby, as father Nat, in another, crooning their ”Unforgettable” duet.
An extended video segment in Po-Latino Land, narrated by WGN-TV`s Roy Leonard (in a memorable self-sendup), is the best part of the show, having nothing to do with ”Our Town” and everything to do with Second City Chicago- ese satire.
Surprise inserts from ”Marty,” ”It`s a Wonderful Life” and ”Death of a Salesman”; an improvised letter-writing session between George and Emily, with the audience filling in the blanks; and a skillfully mimed reproduction of a speeding railroad train are among the setups. The main difficulty is the failure to bring the two main components, literary theater and current politics, meaningfully together.
Besides Abdoo and the sublimely smooth Doyle, however, the enterprise provides wonderful showoff fodder for the inimitable David Razowsky, Megan Moore Burns, Ruth Rudnick and the especially versatile Joe Liss.
`THE HELIOTROPE PLAYERS`
A comic revue by the Second City E.T.C. At 1616 N. Wells St., at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday, 8:30 and 11 p.m. Friday, 8:30 and 11 p.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $10 to $12. Phone 312-337-3992.