Stop the ‘Madness!’ Second City slumps with a manic revue of mundane humor

As Second City nears its 60th anniversary next month, the storied comedy company will be celebrating the hilarious, the influential and the profound satire created on its stages over the decades.

But first, in its flagship venue, the theater is launching a new show, one destined to be remembered as a minor footnote at best or a cautionary tale at worst.

“Do You Believe in Madness?” — the mainstage revue that opened Thursday — marks a low point in recent Second City history. It’s an aggressive but ultimately insipid jumble of underdeveloped ideas and played-out concepts, delivered in broad, sitcommy rhythms.

As usual, the choreography is tight, the pace quick, the music punchy. But it’s all in support of material as thin as the aisles between the tables.

Topical material is abundant but generally states the obvious: Did you know Joe Biden often invokes Barack Obama? Or that Melania Trump is unhappy? Or lots of people have quit the Trump White House?

The mugging writer-actors don’t comment on these matters. They just refer to them, then wait for the guffaws.

Or worse, they exploit a sensitive issue — school shootings, racial killings by police — as fodder for a cheap sight gag.

Quick little blackout bits are a fixture on Wells Street, and this crew leans on them more than most. A lot of rapid-fire humor isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the jokes here are creaky — notions already exhausted for anyone who watches late-night comics or follows a few Twitter quipsters. A few particularly egregious groaners are delivered by drawling actors popping up behind windows, “Hee Haw” style, perhaps as a way of mocking their sheer badness. But who wants to watch that?

When the mania slows for some actual character work, the results can be decent. Andrew Knox and Adam Schreck sound honest notes as regulars at a bus stop, one trying to befriend the other.

But a potentially authentic scene about a woman (Sarah Dell’Amico) wary of trusting her new man (Knox) is mucked up by frantic interruptions by a snippy waiter.

And other premises — a dad hosting a game show to expose a pretzel thief, first-graders professing their gender status in clinical language — just go nowhere.

The grating material does no favors to the largely appealing cast, all new to the mainstage. Knox, familiar from the last three revues at the nearby e.t.c. space, specializes in wild-eyed nut jobs but also calms down nicely. Asia Martin and Mary Catherine Curran, both charismatic and relatable, share an interesting scene as parallel-universe doppelgängers who differ racially, though not all that much. And Jordan Savusa, doing a lot of effective straight-man duty, charms with some laid-back chill, notably in a solo song with ukulele about being a Samoan who’s Hawaiian.

There are improv elements, of course, but none with any sense of innovation. For a stretch, they basically do Freeze Tag, an old chestnut of a game.

At another point, audience suggestions are taken, then an absent actor returns to guess them based on clues mimed by her castmates.

You read that right. At a mainstage show, where tickets run $31 and up, the cast spends 10 minutes playing Charades.

Sometimes a catchy song in a Second City show stays with you past the final bows. In “Do You Believe in Madness?” it’s a favorite phrase, blurted at least half a dozen times by the actors, but also useful for an underwhelmed audience member.

As often as they say it, you’ll think it: “What the f—????”

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