The Brave New Workshop, whose satirical revues are grounded in an improvisational process that evolves into scripted shows, has long specialized in political satire. Interestingly, perhaps because our current crop of politicians provides their own self-satirizing blunders, recent Workshop shows have been short on big comic payoffs. Got Apathy? skips the politics for a change, but mines a much more consistent vein of humor. The focus is as simple as the way we live today, with little emotional investment and willingness to go with the flow of whatever compels us at the moment.
The company maintains the revue format, but there are several thematic threads that run through the show and tie it together. A sketch in the first act might turn out to be the climax of another sketch that doesn't turn up until after the intermission, and casts an interesting and contradictory light on what we think we know. The entire evening is filled with these topsy-turvy surprises, some subtle enough that they might pass you right by if you aren't paying close attention. But that's okay, the company seems to be saying. If you get the long line, that's great; but if you miss it, there's plenty of fun in the short haul as well.
The current BNW company -- Matt Craig, Jeff Hopkins, Katy McEwen, Eriq B. Nelson, and Shanan Wexler -- is somewhat stronger on the male side, with the women sometimes pushing too hard at their comic underscoring. Hopkins is a versatile comic presence, while Craig brings an unusually laid-back personal involvement to everything he does, and ends up surprising you with the number of outstanding moments he has provided. The show opens a potentially fertile new path for the Workshop, one that might inform and amplify their future involvement in the political arena.
