I spent the last several weeks visiting the Largo at the Coronet website hoping for get my hands on two tickets to “An Evening With Rachel Bloom.” Sadly that never happened, so on Saturday, May 7, 2016, I decided to take a chance and drive down to the Largo with my fingers crossed that I would get into the show. Luckily, I was the first person on the waitlist and my wife and I were able to score second row aisle seats by being on the waitlist. Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier with how great the seats were.
As my wife and I were waiting outside hoping to get into the show, we noticed a ton of familiar faces walk through the door. Several cast members from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend including Pete Gardner and Vincent Rodriguez III were there to support Rachel as well as her husband Dan Gregor and Robot Chicken pal, Seth Green. The show was completely sold out and there was an energy in the air that I have never seen before at a comedy show.
Bloom took to the stage a little after 8:30pm and walked out to Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy.” As she began to take center stage, Bloom was met with vigorous applause as she began to explain how she related to “Pretty Fly for a White Guy.” Soon after her hilarious explanation, she began to thank everyone for coming out and for supporting her show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The crowd once again bursted into applause to the point where I think Bloom actually shed a tear. It was clear this early on that she was so grateful to be in a rather large comedy club where every single seat was filled with people who loved and supported her work and career.
Sporting a Canter’s t-shirt and disco pants, Bloom spent almost 2 hours on stage doing a very unique blend of musical numbers as well as stand up. I didn’t quite know what to expect going into the show because while I have seen Bloom perform at UCB in the past, I never saw her do a solo show so I was excited to see what she had up her sleeve. Most of the standup was based around popular culture and pop music. She made jokes about Beyonce, Katy Perry, Adele, Marilyn Monroe, and others. Almost every single word Bloom said seemed to engage the audience. I spent most of the 2 hours laughing uncontrollably and smiling consistently.
Throughout the night, Bloom performed several songs from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend including two of my personal favorites “Sex With a Stranger” and Feeling Kinda Nerdy”. In addition, Bloom performed a few songs from her album “Please Love Me” as well as her underground Chanukah album “Suck it, Christmas.” Bloom warned the crowd before singing songs from her Chanukah album that it was about to get “very Jewish” for a bit and it most certainly did. Bloom’s husband Dan Gregor even pranced around the audience throwing out pieces of foreskin while being dressed as an angel during the song, “Foreskin Angels”.
There were several other standout moments. Three that immediately come to mind include Bloom explaining the viral video “Cake Farts” before singing a musical inspired song about the video, Bloom removing her shirt to sing and perform “Heavy Boobs”, and lastly, the JAP battle which I didn’t quite care for when it was performed on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend but absolutely loved seeing performed live.
There were plenty of surprise guests who joined Bloom on stage including Zach Sherwin, Jack Dolgen, Rachel Grate, and various others. Almost everyone who participated in the show worked on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in some shape or form. The duet with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend choreographer Kathryn Burns singing “We Don’t Need a Man” was nothing short of brilliant.
The energy Bloom displayed onstage was unreal. One of the things that I love about Bloom is that you can always tell she is being who she really is. It is pretty obvious that she tells it like it is and isn’t afraid to say what’s on her mind. I find that to be extremely refreshing to see in show business nowadays. Watching Bloom perform on stage almost felt as though she was just being herself in front of a room full of a her closest friends. Her energy combined with the energy of the crowd was delightful and contagious.
After seeing the show, I am in immediate need of an encore. The show was an absolute blast and I feel so incredibly lucky that I was able to attend. I absolutely loved that Bloom closed the show by singing “You Stupid Bitch” and it was great that most of the audience began to sing along. I think it would absolutely wonderful if Bloom and the rest of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gang could do a small tour around the USA to promote season 2. I think if people got to see Bloom live they would see that she is a comedic tour de force whose intellect, wit, and talent is undeniable.
Trust me, if you get a chance to see Rachel Bloom live do yourself a favor and go. If for some strange reason you still haven’t watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend yet, do yourself a favor and stop reading this and go watch it. The entire first season is now available on iTunes and Amazon right now.
Rachel’s next live show takes place on June 4th in Portland, Oregon as part of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Tickets are surprisingly still available so be sure to grab them while you can.
