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Julia Sweeney

Julia Sweeney’s new one-woman show, “In The Family Way,” is the most remarkable unremarkable show you’ll probably see all year.

You know Sweeney from her years on “Saturday Night Live” and characters like Pat or her previous one-woman show, “God Said, ‘Ha!’” You know she has a loud, but sweet, sense of humor and the ability to masterfully embody her characters. All of this serves her well in “In The Family Way,” which is playing Mondays at the Groundlings Theatre through June 30 (tickets are $15). It is the touching story of how she came to adopt a child.

Everything in the show is relatively common fare these days. From Sweeney’s trials with men to her realizations about the merits of non-traditional families, the discoveries are relatively pedestrian. You won’t walk out of the theater having experienced any deep, socially conscious revelations. But you might feel like you have, and therein lies the trick.

Sweeney draws the audience into her story so well that you go through all of the emotional groundswells along with her. She’s an expert storyteller – pacing herself and choosing just the right amount of details to tug on your heartstrings while tickling your funny bone. Her narrative style is both visual and warm. Like the style seems to be for one-person shows, Sweeney did have a tendency to go too big too much. She often over-utilizes the her voice’s dynamism and facial expressions, momentarily pulling the audience out of the story.

Adding greatly to the intimacy was the Groundlings Theatre itself. The small space made every seat in the house feel part of a gathering in Sweeney’s living room, and the acoustics allowed her voice to project without difficulty.

This is a simple show, put on simply, exposing simple truths, but it’s heartwarming and funny. Don’t take your significant other to see it though if you’re not prepared to talk about kids afterward.