Broadminded continues to offer experimental yet accessible sketch comedy with Lions and Tigers and Zombies?. The all-female comedy group’s latest show doesn’t quite live up to its last program, Science & Surplus, but it still offers enough comic ingenuity to make for a fun evening.
The program’s dozen or so sketches mix Wizard of Oz parody with social satire featuring the classic horror zombie. The best of the Oz material includes a satiric exploration into gender roles with “The Real Househusbands of the Emerald City,” which plays as a mixture of highbrow comedy and pop-culture spoof.
With zombies serving as a metaphor for a range of postmodern human conditions, the zombie sketches don’t have to travel far to hit home. At one point, there’s a conversation between a bride-to-be zombie and the zombie women planning her bachelorette party (evidently she doesn’t want any brains at the party). There’s a musical bit about a girl completely falling for a zombie who clearly only wants her for her brains.
There also are sketches that don’t fit narrowly into the Oz-zombie theme. These bits are hit or miss, but they also include some of the show’s best material. “Fine, Fine Line” is a musical dialogue between optimism and realism over the importance and/or futility of voting under the current system.
Music has played a part in past Broadminded shows, but it’s a little more prominent this time, which helps to keep the show from slowing down during the weaker sketches. Lions and Tigers is not as brilliant as previous Broadminded shows, but it feels just a bit more stylish.
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Broadminded’s Lions and Tigers and Zombies? runs through Nov. 21 at the Alchemist Theatre.
