It’s really a stand-up routine, but it’s being performed at a major theater in L.A., so we can treat Julia Sweeney: Older & Wider as a theater event, especially since the show is now selling out at the Geffen’s black-box space, it marks a return to the stage for Sweeney after an absence of some fifteen years, though she has worked sporadically on TV in that time. Sweeney, who came to fame on “Saturday Night Live” 1990-1995, is no stranger to solo shows: her previous ones were God Said Ha!, In the Family Way, and Letting Go of God. As the titles indicate, among her major concerns are religion and motherhood, both of which she deals with in bold, irreverent fashion in her latest monologue. Raised Catholic, she now preaches secular humanism--but not with a chip on her shoulder. She pokes good-natured fun at Catholicism, even credits it for having shaped her character. One of her funny bits is an analysis of the Gospels, which taken in sequence read (to her) like progressive drafts of a Hollywood screenplay. Working on a bare stage with mike in hand-–and fighting off an attack of laryngitis--the now plump, white-haired comic (signs of age which she pokes fun at), riffs on politics (especially Trump), her Jewish husband, her adopted Chinese daughter, being a housewife, the Midwest, moving back to L.A., her time on “SNL” (when she portrayed the androgynous character “Pat”), and much, much more. Sweeney lights up the stage in charismatic, animated fashion. delivering one laugh after another for seventy straight minutes. Solo shows don’t get much better than this one.
