Dear Old Shiz
Do you like musical theatre? Do you like sketch comedy? Do you have at least one Monday evening free every month? Well, there’s a show at Upright Citizens Brigade Hell’s Kitchen that will satisfy all of those cravings. Let me tell you a little about it, and why you should absolutely join me at their next performance!
Shiz is a monthly sketch comedy show that drops musical theatre characters into ridiculous, hilarious scenarios and lets chaos and comedy ensue. Unlike most musical sketch comedy or improv groups I’ve seen, Shiz doesn’t write original lyrics to existing songs or write parody soundalikes - every sketch is built around existing musical theatre songs that the cast delivers powerhouse performances of. Shiz is the brainchild of Shaina Taub (of Public Works Twelfth Night and the upcoming Devil Wears Prada musical) and her partner Matt Gehring. Before and after every sketch, the host of the evening, Bradford Whitman Sampler (played by Gehring in a wig and oversized sweater) shares some factually inaccurate but very funny musical “trivia” as segues. A pretty silly but fun example of some of his trivia is this tidbit about Seussical: “Did you know the word Seussical is a combination of Dr. Seuss’s last name and the Apple computer calendar, iCal?”
The core cast of Shiz are some of the most talented performers I’ve ever seen, and their work here is downright addictive. The cast includes some names you might probably already be familiar if you love downtown and cult classic musical theatre: alongside Shaina we have Alice By Heart’s Natalie Walker, Great Comet’s Heath Saunders, Octet’s Kuhoo Verma, Nicole Weiss, and Kim Blanck, Fun Home’s Joel Perez, Newsies’ Liana Hunt, Wicked’s Larkin Bogan, Max Ash, Preston Martin, and Fernando Contreras. They all play a variety of characters and can even do some very specific impersonations. (Fernando can do a solid Jesse L. Martin, so he sings the Collins part in a sketch involving songs from Rent.)
Speaking of sketches, just how are they? Well, I think they’re absolutely genius. The first Shiz sketch I ever saw was a short and sweet parody of The Last Five Years: Kathy and Jamie accidentally meet at the wrong point in the timeline, ripping a hole in the space-time continuum. Kathy, traveling backward in time from the end of their relationship, tells Jamie that the only way they can close the wormhole is if he stops being such a douchebag! Another great example of a Shiz sketch is their Grease parody: Danny and Sandy are all ready to tell the T-birds and Pink Ladies about their summer romance, but before they can launch into “Summer Nights,” Sandy leaves to go use the restroom. So Danny impulsively starts singing his part of the song, “Summer Lovin’ had me a blast!” ….but Sandy isn’t back. So back to Danny we go. “Met a girl, crazy for me!” ....still no Sandy. This goes on for most of the song, giving us some over-the-top performances from Danny and his boys and dissonant moments of awkward silence on the Pink Ladies’ side of the stage. Sandy eventually does get back, but by the time she starts singing her first verse, Danny’s at the end of the song… so Danny keels over and dies because they couldn’t sync their verses in time. It’s an extremely random ending but it’s also very funny. Another sketch I absolutely love is an interview between an NPR host and an avant-garde theatre director. Clearly a riff on the unique choices Ivo Van Hove makes in his productions of popular works, the director showcases scenes from his next production, a disturbingly sexual production of Seussical the Musical.
Every month the cast welcomes a special guest or two; some of my favorite recent guests include Jenn Colella from Come from Away, Etai Benson from The Band’s Visit, and Jeff Hiller from Hercules and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. The sketches the guest performers participate in are often more outrageous and tailored to the guest’s specific vocals. For example, when Jenn Colella guested, she played Bobbie from Company in a sketch where Bobbie goes to a dominatrix in search of something that will help her feel more “alive” - so as she gets spanked and whipped by the dominatrix, she fittingly belts “Being Alive.”
The first two times I saw Shiz were this past January and February, and both performances were at 54 Below. They moved their performances to their current home at UCB in March for accessibility reasons and now perform at 10:30 pm the second Monday of every month. I’ve managed to see all but one Shiz show in 2019 - I keep coming back because it’s simply the best sketch comedy I’ve ever seen in New York, and the constant barrage of musical theater in-jokes delivered perfectly keeps me laughing month after month. The humor is tailor-made for theatre geeks like me. Even the smallest obscure reference has me howling with laughter.
If you want a great and affordable evening of comedy and theatre nerd humor, Shiz is the perfect late-night outing for you! It’s affordable to get tickets to (nine dollars, or free if you take classes at UCB) and it’s the funniest hour or so of musical theatre comedy you will ever experience.
