The last laugh? Second City puts its flagship theater on sale
If you’ve always craved control of a American comedy institution, you’re in luck, said Sam Barsanti in AVClub. com. The original Chicago branch of Second City, which hasn’t staged normal live shows since March, is seeking a buyer. “Just think,” if you can spare $50 million, “you could be an influential part of the improv education of the next Tina Fey, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, Amy Poehler, Steve Carell, or Chris Farley.” As venues across the country continue to be hammered by the pandemic, the sale offer feels like another ominous sign, said Carrie Shepherd in WBEZ.org. It came the same week Broadway extended its own shutdown through the end of May 2021. And with the rival iO Theater already permanently disbanded, Chicago’s long run as a comedy incubator could be endangered.
Second City Chicago probably isn’t facing a final curtain, said Chris Jones in the
Chicago Tribune.
The 61-year-old talent factory is still earning revenue through online classes and improv training for corporate workforces. It still has satellite stages in Toronto and Los Angeles, and it could prove attractive to Netflix or “any other content-hungry media giant” seeking a proven pipeline for comedy gold. Still, the possibility of a non-Chicago entity taking over Second City “should set off alarm bells.” Most entertainment in this country is generated in New York City and L.A. by people who see all stops between “merely as marketplaces to sell their stuff.” It’s now imaginable that a style of egalitarian Chicago humor that has helped the city hash out so many conflicts will die in this pandemic, which in turn seems to be amplifying cultural division. While a new owner should be able to reopen Second City’s doors someday, “the American people will have to decide if they ever can laugh together again.”