Siskel & Ebert Save Chicago

Boiling down the plot of an over-the-top Factory satire to a manageably concise description is one of our favorite impossibilities, and they’ve outdone themselves this time. We don’t even know where to start with Roach’s new play, and we mean that in a good way. Here’s the gist: Gene Siskel is actually the world’s greatest secret agent, and he’s not dead. Mayor Daley and Roger Ebert bring him back from cryogenic stasis to battle a nefarious plot by Oprah, Richard Roeper and Mancow, who plan to use Oprah’s army of mom-bies to take control of Daley Plaza, where the Picasso turns out to be... eh, we give up.

Roach is a first-time playwright, but he’s got a handle on the Factory style: giant cast, frantic pace, gleefully vulgar non sequiturs, side gags galore. If we didn’t know better, we’d assume it was cranked out by frequent playwright OKen himself. Unfortunately Roach shares OKen’s vices as well as his virtues—mainly, this thing is bloated as hell. The gag about Oprah’s violently excited studio audience, for instance, would be far too long even if SNL hadn’t done it better (and shorter) years ago, and some of the left-field bits just derail the action without being funny enough to justify themselves. But the good stuff is more than worth it. If the image of Oprah and Siskel playing slap-fight for the fate of the city doesn’t make you giggle, this isn’t your cup of tea; but then, the Factory’s more of a beer crowd anyway.—Kris Vire