Fresh faces have their place, but it’s the old pros who are driving the biggest laughs in “Best Kept Secret: Tell Everyone,” the new show at Second City e.t.c.
Most of this cast is coming off one or more revues here and countless other hours logged on other local stages, and their aplomb is obvious as they confidently lock into one persona after another. You see it in Tim Metzler’s possession of a sinister ventriloquist dummy come to life, in Meghan Babbe’s unflappable comedian in a boa, in Claudia Martinez’s parade of weirdos in wigs and fake mustaches.
While not the equal of last year’s giddy “Oh, the Places You’ll Glow” on this stage, “Best Kept Secret” does offer some mighty laughs — eventually. The first act is made up of fairly routine duo and group sketches, about sisters reconnecting on a cruise, a family game night gone awry, a woman introducing her boyfriend to co-workers and losing control of her lies. Perhaps the intention is establish the cast as an ensemble, but the sequence of events doesn’t do much to build excitement.
Though it arrives in the thick of election season, “Best Kept Secrets” limits the political humor to just a few quick blackouts, notably a metaphor about Israel that’s sure to drop some jaws.
It’s directed by veteran Second City performer Carisa Barreca, who returns to the (winning) formula of her 2023 mainstage effort “Don’t Quit Your Daydream.” The comedy is surrounded by the trappings of old show business: canes, patter, tinkling ragtime piano (speeding up and slowing down to eerie effect), big cards cuing audience responses (“Oooooh!”), half-baked illusions.
That’s the tone of the first-act closer, a would-be showpiece bringing in an audience member to assist in an elaborate, full-cast heist with some magic along the way. The beats of the bit are well thought-out, but a few missteps on opening night snarled the pacing.
The two newcomers to e.t.c., Jenelle Cheyne and Javid Iqbal, make strong initial impressions. Vancouver native Cheyne works in some civics lessons as she vets potential immigrants on their knowledge of Canada. Iqbal brings dance chops to the show and busts many a move, notably playing a nightclub patron who can’t cut loose until he meets a woman (Cheyne) who’s his lookalike.
The show’s strong second act leans on the more experienced hands. Terrence Carey puts his improv skills on display, making up delightful beat poetry based on secrets confessed by audience members. Babbe, a fierce, self-assured presence, puts on the boa for a bawdy monologue about her postpartum private parts.
Metzler, after a first act of deft support work, takes center stage as a spider who has bonded with the bachelor (Carey) whose home he infested. It’s a scene that keeps refreshing its premise and builds to a killer ending. Later he turns up in grotesque makeup as the dummy, his voice dripping evil. The audience member dragged into his nefarious plot has a lot to do, but Metzler manages to keep it all fun.
A slovenly bachelor (Terrence Carey, right) gets along just fine with the spider in his home (Tim Metzler) in “Best Kept Secret.”
Todd Rosenberg
And then there’s Martinez, whose expressive antics were a highlight of the last two e.t.c. revues. She joins the other two women in a wonderful song about modern feminine woes, sung in cheery ’60s girl-group style in big wigs.
This show makes great use of Martinez’s audience rapport as she roams the crowd seeking help in her quest to expose secrets, and has her address her gender fluidity with a little song-and-dance where she’s dressed as half-man, half-woman.
But the pinnacle of the night has Martinez playing an aspiring DJ who speaks in a prepubescent squeak and prefers to let vocal tracks and pulsing EDM beats do the talking. Paired with Iqbal, dancing with abandon as the introverted DJ’s supportive dad, she inhabits one of several characters that make “Best Kept Secret” worth sharing.