Rachel Bloom graced the stage in New York with her latest live show, reminiscing about the year 2019. It was a significant year for her as it marked the end of her popular musical-comedy series, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and she was eager to relive that era. However, unforeseen events in 2020 disrupted her plans.
After the long-awaited return to performing for a live audience, the talented writer-performer sought to treat the coronavirus pandemic as a temporary setback. At the Lucille Lortel Theater, she expressed her desire to “go back to my old material unsullied by trauma.”
However, some things cannot be easily brushed aside, even with catchy songs and jokes.
Fate, life, inspiration, rumination, grief, time, and an inexplicable force greater than comedy itself disrupted Bloom’s plan. Her show, titled “Death, Let Me Do My Show,” delves into the topics she tried to avoid discussing on stage. (Spoiler alert: David Hull, a cast member of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” portrays one of these forces.)
In the spring of 2020, Bloom found herself in a convergence of chaotic and terrifying events that felt too dramatic and coincidental for a Hollywood movie.
Amid the early days of the pandemic, Bloom gave birth to her daughter, who ended up in intensive care due to fluid in her lungs. Simultaneously, her close collaborator on the series, musician Adam Schlesinger, battled Covid-19 in the hospital on the opposite coast.
Thankfully, Bloom’s child survived, but her friend did not.
These harrowing days serve as the culmination of Bloom’s memoir, “I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are,” published in November 2020. They also form the heart of her almost-one-woman show. Bloom journeys through incomprehension, fear, regret, anger, and cosmic confusion (even questioning her atheism). All the while, she maintains her signature candid and humorous style, addressing uncomfortable topics with honesty and directness. Accompanied by a three-piece backing band led by music director Jerome Kurtenbach,
Directed by Seth Barrish, known for collaborating with Mike Birbiglia, “Death, Let Me Do My Show” shares similarities with Birbiglia’s introspective performances. It differentiates itself from recent solo shows by Kate Berlant and Liz Kingsman, which experimented with the genre’s structure and explored the nature of narcissism.
Bloom may have started her career by uploading videos on YouTube, but she embodies the spirit of an old-fashioned vaudevillian. She effortlessly combines extroversion with vulnerability, drawing from her experiences as a theater enthusiast. As she navigates the line between confidence and vulnerability, sincere emotion and self-aware dramatization, Bloom offers a satirical take on “Dear Evan Hansen,” a musical that relies on cheering for an unreliable and somewhat unsympathetic protagonist.
The songs in Bloom’s show are its highlights. She has a knack for injecting surreal details into emotional moments. For instance, in the tender song “Lullaby for a Newborn,” she humorously points out that she was cradling a bottle of water wrapped in a towel. This absurdist approach elicits both laughter and underscores the show’s underlying theme: the often cruel and arbitrary nature of life.
Death, Let Me Do My Show
Through Sept. 30 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, Manhattan; rachelbloomshow.com. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.
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