Cats and Dogs (and Other Tails), Greta Mae Productions, at the Chicago Actors Studio. Imagine being set up on a blind date by your soon-to-be ex-spouse, who then joins you, accompanied by her new lover. That stomach-wrenching situation is the anchor but not the sum total of this quirky, highly original evening. Cherie Vogelstein’s script is sliced into five- to ten-minute scenes, with unrelated improvisation-based monologues inserted between them. Opening-night topics (they change for each performance) varied from feeling retarded in tap class (been there) to eating peanut butter to prevent harsh movie-set lights from giving you cancer. Instead of interrupting the flow, in Second City fashion these non sequiturs create the effect of channel surfing–they’re entertaining little blips while we wait to see how the main story develops. It’s no surprise that director T.J. Jagodowski is a Second City alum who contributed to the second-stage show Holy War, Batman! last winter.
