This Is The Week That Is

1812 Productions, Philadelphia’s only all Comedy Theater Comedy, is once again presenting its much-acclaimed satirical news review, This Is The Week That Is. Changing daily to meet the ever-changing headlines, the show is part scripted, part improv but 100% pure delight. The humor is at times droll and at times hysterical but always entertaining. After an opening scene in which the multi-talented Artistic Director Jennifer Childs feigns exasperation with her cast for staying home on zoom instead of appearing live onstage, Sean Close, Donnie Hammond, Frank Jimenez, Pax Ressler Jackie Soro and Lexie Thammavong all enter the stage and join  in an opening number with Lexi introducing the concept of “copium.” Dating Game Billionaire Edition and The Price Is Right with Billionaire contestants follows. A commercial break appropriately appears after the two game shows with copium explicitly  explained in a bottle of perfume. The evening progresses with one skit after another.  This is not just your every-day 16^th year This Is The Week That Is. This is a very well-thought-out sophisticated production of knock-your-socks-off comedy. Pandemic-The Musical is brilliant. It has five musical numbers, each one both comical and poignant, including a solo of a face mask singing and dancing, an  Into the World (Woods) duet, and a grand finale of cue tips singing and dancing to Right Up Your Nose. As part of the This is the News That Is segment,  Donnie Hammond renders an outstanding performance as Ketanji Brown Jackson in her Senate Confirmations Hearings. Larger than-life videos of Senators Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz are played asking her grueling questions to which she grabs a microphone and raps responses. Of  course, this production would not be the same without an appearance of Patsy from Schunk Street sitting on her stoop. Patsy speaks and interacts with the audience before the closing number. I have seen 15 of the 16 “weeks that is” and this production has the whit, pizzaz, sophistication and panache of all of them rolled up into one. For more information or tickets visit www.1812productions.org.