Aug. 06--There is a looseness and also a precision that seasoned improv performers bring to the stage, and it is this combination -- disciplined but unpredictable -- that can elevate a scene into something exceptional. The real-life couple Tara DeFrancisco and Rance Rizzutto are crack purveyors of this kind of thing.
Their two-person musical improv show at iO Theater has an easygoing confidence but also a satisfying weirdness. Consider this exchange, which begins with an absurdist insult:
Rizzutto: "Where I grew up, you know what we'd call you? A broken refrigerator."
DeFrancisco, after a pause: "That seems very ... local."
It's such a specific skill, what they're doing, and the songs that grow out of their scenes don't halt the plot but actually advance it.
Their show last week may have gone on two scenes too long -- maybe they didn't sense that they had reached the show's natural conclusion, or maybe they kept going due to the stage manager and/or their (extremely talented) music accompanist Dave Asher, both of whom help set the pace -- but this was the show's only weak point.
In improv, that kind of consistency is a rarity.
Playing a young couple testing the romantic waters, DeFrancisco admitted, "I'm really bad at social cues." Without missing a beat came Rizzutto's reply: "Awesome."
"Just don't run away," he told her. "It's my apartment," she pointed out, nodding to their surroundings and launching an entire song inspired by the idea that they're destined to be together because ... well, she's not exactly going to bolt from her own apartment.
That's the kind of ridiculous but plaintive key they're working in. DeFrancisco is such a major presence as a performer -- she can play it tough or clueless, and your eye is drawn to her every time -- and Rizzutto is smart about dialing his energy down just enough to provide some balance.
He's exceptionally good at playing good-natured if somewhat dimwitted guys, and it works in terrific contrast to DeFrancisco's sweet-sour sensibility, which has all sorts of wonderfully detailed conversational tics and pauses. But more than that, together they create genuine emotional moments.
Strange little scenario or not, I was rooting for those two crazy kids in that apartment.
REVIEW: "Here" at iO Theater
3.5 STARS
In an open run at the iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury St.; tickets are $14 at 312-929-2401 or ioimprov.com/chicago
