Comic Chameleon

Drop Six member Alicia Levy goes solo with a largely solid character showcase.

Alicia Levy continues her chameleon-like, musically-inclined characterizations in “I’m So There,” her new solo show running at the People’s Improv Theater on Thursdays in September with Kimmy Gatewood’s “The Engagement,” (reviewed 4/16/08).

Levy’s first piece in the show takes advantage of her sex appeal and mixes it with a novel comic idea -- an auditioning stripper who’s a klutz. But then, showing her range, Levy turns up in the guise of a grandmother going on about her neighbors. What both characters have in common is that in performing them, Levy seems to utterly disappear and the character she has created is driving the bus, as it were.

“I’m So There” features a recurring video piece where Levy plays an addled advice-giver to new moms with a show called “Bringing Home Baby,” again disappearing into the character.

The only real misfire in Levy’s show is a truly bizarrely costumed Project Runway contestant whose elaborate Cirque du Soleil-like, butterfly-adorned attire raises your expectations for something as bizarrely funny in the characterization, but the piece never quite takes off.

Wisely, though, Levy reprises her Bat Mitzvah girl character, previously performed as part of the sketch group Drop Six (reviewed 8/19/06), which is always a treat to see, from the way she captures the mannerisms of a young Jewish girl to the entertaining rap she then delivers in character.

Paired with “The Engagement,” you cannot go wrong making Levy’s show your night out.