'Best Kept Secret' Review: Second City takes the lid off a show with a few star turns

Fresh faces have their place, but it’s the old pros who get the biggest laughs in “Best Kept Secret: Tell Everyone,” the new show at Second City, etc.

Most of this cast comes from one or more revues here and countless other hours on other local stages, and their confidence is evident as they confidently take on one persona after another. You see it in Tim Metzler’s possession of a sinister ventriloquist dummy that comes to life, in Meghan Babbe’s imperturbable comedian in a boa, in Claudia Martinez’s parade of weirdos in wigs and fake mustaches.

Although not the same as last year’s staggering one “Oh, the places where you will glow” on this stage ‘Best Kept Secret’ ultimately provides a great laugh. The first act consists of fairly routine duo and group sketches, about sisters who meet again on a cruise, a family games night that gets out of hand, a woman who introduces her boyfriend to colleagues and loses control over her lies. Perhaps the intention is to establish the cast as an ensemble, but the sequence of events doesn’t add much to the tension.

‘Best kept secret: tell everyone’

Though it arrives in the middle of election season, “Best Kept Secrets” limits its political humor to just a few quick blackouts, particularly a metaphor about Israel that is sure to drop a few jaws.

It’s directed by veteran Second City artist Carisa Barreca, who returns to the (winning) formula of her 2023 mainstage effort “Do not abandon your daydream.” The comedy is surrounded by the trappings of old show business: sticks, banter, tinkling ragtime piano (speeding up and slowing down to eerie effect), large cards that evoke audience reactions (“Oooooh!”), half-baked illusions.

That’s the tone of the first act’s closer, a showpiece that brings in an audience member to assist in an elaborate, full-scale heist with some magic along the way. The bit’s beats are well thought out, but a few missteps on opening night disrupted the pace.

Tim Metzler (from left), Jenelle Cheyne, Javid Iqbal, Claudia Martinez, Meghan Babbe and Terrence Carey star "The best kept secret: tell everyone" in Second City etc — Tim Metzler (from left), Jenelle Cheyne, Javid Iqbal, Claudia Martinez, Meghan Babbe and Terrence Carey star in “Best Kept Secret: Tell Everyone” at Second City etc.

The two newcomers to etc, Jenelle Cheyne and Javid Iqbal, make a strong first impression. Vancouver native Cheyne works in some social studies classes while surveying potential immigrants on their knowledge of Canada. Iqbal brings dancing chops to the show and busts out many a move, most notably playing a nightclub goer who can’t let loose until he meets a woman (Cheyne) who looks like him.

The show’s strong second act leans on the more experienced hands. Terrence Carey shows off his improvisation skills and comes up with wonderful beat poetry, based on secrets known to the public. Babbe, a fierce, confident presence, puts on the boa for a bawdy monologue about her genitals after giving birth.

Metzler, after an initial act of deft supporting work, takes center stage as a spider who has bonded with the bachelor (Carey) whose house he infested. It’s a scene that continues to renew the premise and build to a killer ending. Later he appears in grotesque make-up as the puppet, his voice dripping with evil. The audience member drawn into his nefarious plot has a lot to do, but Metzler manages to keep it all fun.

A sloppy bachelor (Terrence Carey, right) gets along with the spider in his house (Tim Metzler) in "The best kept secret." — A sloppy bachelor (Terrence Carey, right) gets along with the spider in his house (Tim Metzler) in “Best Kept Secret.”

And then there’s Martinez, whose expressive antics were a highlight of the last two etc. revues. She and the other two women sing a beautiful song about modern female misery, sung in cheerful 60s girl group style with big wigs.

This show makes good use of the connection with the audience as Martinez wanders through the crowd looking for help in her quest to uncover secrets, and has her address her gender fluidity with a bit of song and dance where she is dressed as half man, half woman.

But at the evening’s highlight, Martinez plays an aspiring DJ who squeaks prepubescently and prefers to let vocal tracks and pulsating EDM beats do the talking. Together with Iqbal, who dances with dedication as the supportive father of the introverted DJ, she steps into one of the many characters that make ‘Best Kept Secret’ worth sharing.