America: All Better! at Second City

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"...The best Second City revues have strong overarching worldviews—preferably involving our deepest insecurities. This stellar new show is right up there with the classics. It benefits from a cast of unusually diverse styles and talents."

Chicago Sun Times - Recommended

"...This flamboyant revue, directed by Matt Hovde and featuring Lauren Ash, Joe Canale, Shelly Gossman, Brad Morris, Anthony LeBlanc, Emily Wilson and O'Brien -- arrived just a week after Second City e.t.c. debuted its newest show. So the inevitable question was: After riffing on Barack Obama's victory, the ever-more catastrophic economy and those dependable old standbys (sex and relationships), would there be anything left to spoof?"

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...It seems the Second City company would rather leave the breaking news to television’s comic commentators, like SNL, Jon Stewart, D.L. Hughley, and Stephen Colbert (a Second City veteran). The choice makes sense: TV can respond much more rapidly to changing events than a long-running sketch revue can. But not even the sharpest on-air satire can match the distinctive experience of a live performance in an intimate cabaret, and America: All Better! is at its best when it celebrates that."

Examiner - Recommended

"...As always, Ruby Streak’s musical direction provides verve, snap and polish. American is not, of course all better. But even if it were, we suspect Second City would still find plenty to skewer."

Chicago Free Press - Recommended

"...The ensemble deliver the goods with a high interest rate, never more charming than when Gossman plays a trash-talking WWE wrestler while, as her rival, Lauren Ash delivers maddeningly thoughtful and compassionately restrained responses to her foul-mouthed taunts. This is vintage S.C. magic, where the character-based jokes defy expectations to strip dangerous familiarity from a stupid stereotype."

Centerstage - Highly Recommended

"...It's the rare show that may actually manage to please all people, all the time. Whether you’re a local Chicagoan on a night out or an out-of-towner looking for a good time, The Second City Mainstage delivers the goods."