Playwrights: The ensemble. At: GayCo at Playground Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St. Tickets: www.gayco.com or www.the-playground.com; $12. Runs through: June 29
It's a dodgy proposition to review improv comedy shows. What happens on opening night is not going to be the same material that subsequent audiences see at later performances.
Yet thought I should take a look at GayCo's Pride-timed show Married, but Still Slutty at the Playground Theater. Instead of a written and refined sketch revue, Married, but Still Slutty offers members of GayCo, Chicago's oldest and best-known LGBT sketch comedy troupe, a chance to flex their improvisation muscles. There's also the added bonus of anecdotes from special guest "gay-lebrities," whose own stories are seized upon to inspire on-the-spot material for the ensemble.
Married, but Still Slutty kicks off with a fun song and dance number called "One Last Summer to Slut." Clearly it was written with the hopes that same-sex marriage would have been passed this year in the Illinois General Assembly, giving a deadline for LGBT couples to celebrate their slutty side before officially settling down. Oh, wellthere's hope for the fall veto session to make same-sex marriage a reality, although I'm sure that "sluttiness" won't be going out of style.
Windy City Times publisher Tracy Baim was the opening night "Gay-lebrity" for Married, but Still Slutty, and she recounted two tales from her start in LGBT journalism and of her recent coverage of the Rainbow Sash Movement in Chicago.
Baim's first story touched upon her days working at the long-gone newspaper Gay Life as a typesetter (being one of two women working in an overwhelmingly male environment), while the second involved her coverage of the protest to Archbishop Francis Cardinal George's appearance at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Chicago's Lakeview to mark the 25th anniversary of the Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach (AGLO) June 16.
Alas, the members of GayCo only used Baim's stories tangentially to create on-the-spot skits. Many scenes were really funny, especially Chris Kervick blithely creating a nebulous movement around glow sticks. (His understated interjections of "GLO!" was a wonderful touch.)
Yet there were also times that you wished the ensemble would have gone for the jugular of serious issues that Baim provided for them, instead of lightly tiptoeing around them. But when you're thinking and performing from the seat of your pants, it might be difficult to fully articulate a comic riff on topics like exclusion, faith and freedom of the press.
Nonetheless, Married, but Still Slutty allows many GayCo performers like Kelly Beeman, Kathy Betts, Clay Goodpasture and to show off their comedy skills in an more unstructured way. And who knows? The improvised skits and sketches devised in the moment for Married, but Still Slutty might transform into a more polished forms in future GayCo revues.