The hardest things to review are the erotic and the comic. What makes us laugh and what arouses us are so specific to each person that what works for someone will leave someone else utterly cold. So it was a double challenge to watch Shadowbox’s new show, Sex at the Box, with an eye toward not just what worked for me – in both those senses – but what I can recommend.
Any time you have two hours of sketches interspersed with musical numbers, you’re going to have a mixed bag; no one hits every time, and Sex at the Box is no exception. I loved less than half of it, but the parts I enjoyed made me laugh heartily and without self-consciousness, and maybe I sat up a little straighter.
On the comedy front, the first half is the much weaker of the two, relying heavily on “funny” voices that are mostly just grating, particularly “In a Bar,” and “The Friend Zone.” And some sketches don’t have enough meat to justify their length, like “Life Duet,” showing stages of a relationship through snippets of pop songs on the radio, and “Sneak a Peek – Dirty Movies,” the old early morning TV film-reviewing show reviewing pornography that only has enough laughs to justify half its length.
There are some comedic bright spots in the first half. JT Walker III’s Announcer in “In a Bar” is spot-on and funny. Jimmy Mak’s closeted Southern TV host in “Things That Matter” finds new twists on a stereotype we’ve seen many times. Best of all, Robbie Nance’s Rod Serling impression in “The Friend Zone” is jaw-droppingly good – he gets the empathy and the condescension that Serling had, and nails the rhythms as well as anyone I’ve seen.
If you stick through the first half, there are some big laughs in the second. The later sketches are paced well, ending before the laughter dies down, and even well-worn material feels fresh and fun. “The Pyramid Game” pairs an uptight Upper Arlington couple, played by Jimmy Mak and Katy Psenicka, opposite a couple from a poorer part of town, played by David Whitehouse and Amy Lay, in the titular game show, and it’s a nonstop delight, getting big, raunchy laughs that come from the characters and their absurdity without ever selling out who they are. Whitehouse and Lay’s commentary and struggle to keep their composure were my favorite moments of the show.
“Funk Daddy Love” could have had fresher material in its tale of an ‘80s soul singer on trial for “being too sexy,” but the song parodies are hysterical, the rhythm is sharp as a razor, and the utter commitment of Brandon Anderson as the eponymous character and Katy Psenicka as the prosecutor are such a joy to watch that it sails over any qualms. The three video sketches here are also top notch: a discussion of the “G Spot” we’ve seen a hundred times but with a wink, a look at how the good old days maybe weren’t so good in “Modern Dating,” and the wrong person left in charge of a group of kids in “The Birds and the Bees.”
I think my biggest problem with the sketches on a macro level was the complete lack of any LGBT content. Whenever a character not specifically drawn as heterosexual appears on the stage, it’s either women touching one another in a way keyed toward straight men or a “swishy” gay male stereotype that’s cringingly redolent of the ‘70s and ‘80s. In a 2015 show about sex and love, don’t we think audiences can handle gay and straight themed sketches in the same production?
On the music, the band Bill Who? is one of the strongest cover bands I’ve seen, extracting what’s good about the songs and playing them perfectly – this is the kind of show you’re not coming to for wild interpretation – and they don’t miss a note. The voices are immaculate and brilliantly matched to the songs, with highlights including The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” sung by Brandon Anderson and Noelle Grandison; Noelle Grandison’s bravura turn on Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” backed by Nikki Fagin, Jessica Rigsby and Tom Cardinal; Stephanie Shull’s knife-twisting take on Erykah Badu’s “Tyrone;” Nikki Fagin leading the chorus in Queen’s “Somebody to Love;” and Amy Lay’s gritty, sultry “Glorybox” by Portishead.
As good as the singing and playing was, I wanted significantly more sexy in the musical numbers. Choreography seems nonexistent or, at best, like placeholders. This is particularly egregious on “The Way You Make Me Feel,” where the great dancer Nick Wilson has a spotlight on him but almost nothing to do, while the three backing singers sit on the band riser. And “Glorybox” has eight people on stage, two of whom sit looking bored for ⅔ of the song while the others basically wander the stage, also looking bored.
Beyond the choreography, the numbers also seem too beholden to the period of the song or just left me confused. The worst offender is “Tyrone,” which wraps Shull’s great vocal performance in a fright wig and a shapeless Vegas-style dress, while her backing singers Noelle Grandison, Anita McFarren, and Amy Lay, in showgirl-y bikini tops and hot pants, act out cliches like finger-snapping, hooting, and talking over the song in a way that undercuts its anger and sexiness. “Glorybox” and “Just Like Heaven” also left me scratching my head, representing the two ends of the spectrum, from non-sensical to too on the nose, with their respective settings: a post-apocalyptic ‘30s and an ‘80s prom. Neither was steamy. In part this harkens back to the warning about taste – for mine, those are the three sexiest songs in the show, so my expectations were higher. But in general, I wanted the stagings to be as good as the music, because I know there are some people who go to Shadowbox mostly for the band.
That said, if you’re looking for something in this style to do in the lead up to Valentine’s Day, you could do a lot worse. They won over a cynic like me several times, and the rest of the audience was in hysterics. It’s very easy to see why Shadowbox has built such a loyal following and why they’re so successful.
Shadowbox Live performs Sex at the Box on select Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through March 21. Tickets are $20-40. More information available at ShadowboxLive.org.