'Lip Sync' goes live with 'Broad City,' Houghs
NEW YORK — To paraphrase Broad City: Yas, queens.
Comedy duo Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer were the halftime entertainment at Monday's free live concert of Spike TV's Lip Sync Battle, but may as well have been the main event.
The Broad City stars, who wrapped the second season of their raunchy, slice-of-life sitcom on Comedy Central this spring, were greeted with euphoric applause from the sizable crowd at the open-air SummerStage venue in Central Park. Dressed in a shimmery, floor-length gown, Jacobson brought the house down with her animated take on torch song And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls, thrusting the mic stand and tussling her hair as she lovingly prodded Jennifer Hudson's and Holliday's larger-than-life performances. (Her sitcom alter-ego, Val, certainly would've been proud.)
Next up, Glazer hit the stage in a raincoat and galoshes for a peppy rendition of — you guessed it — The Weather Girls' It's Raining Men, backed by all-male dancers wielding umbrellas and wearing barely-there red shorts. Keeping in the spirit of their buddy-buddy Broad City dynamic, Glazer told host LL Cool J afterward that Jacobson "won" that round, but luckily for us, they'll be duking it out again next month on the TV game show.
Otherwise, the inaugural 50-minute event hewed pretty closely to what fans have come to expect from the first season of Lip Sync Battle, which is based on Jimmy Fallon's popular late-night segments and pits celebrities against each other as they mouth their favorite songs. After showing a highlights reel of the TV series' viral performances by Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, emcee LL Cool J introduced his goofy co-host, model Chrissy Teigen, and the night's competitors, siblings Julianne and Derek Hough.
The Dancing with the Stars alums already faced off against each other in a Lip Sync episode in May, and reprised two of those performances in Central Park: Derek, "rapping" Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' Can't Hold Us and jumping into the audience; and Julianne, hamming it up with The Lonely Island's I Just Had Sex, much to the amusing discomfort of her older brother. Broad City aside, Julianne's bawdy, committed performance earned the biggest cheers of the night, although that wasn't quite enough to earn her the coveted winner's belt.
That honor went to Derek, who went full-on glam rock for his butt-shaking rendition of The Darkness' power ballad I Believe in a Thing Called Love. Recreating British rocker Justin Hawkins' long, messy mane and studded white jumpsuit, the throwback choice was a more successful run at audience nostalgia than Julianne's head-banging attempt at Chumbawamba's Tubthumping, which didn't land quite as enthusiastically with concertgoers as she probably hoped.
The show recreated a version of the TV stage setup (albeit scaled down) and was mostly free of surprises. Today host Hoda Kotb, sporting sunglasses and a fedora, briefly revived her Uptown Funk performance as she brought out the winner's belt, quipping, "Do you know who doesn't know what this belt looks like? Michael Strahan," whom she competed against on Lip Sync in April. LL Cool J also reminded us he's still got it, rapping some of his older hits. During which, he plucked a small girl from the crowd, cradling her in his arms as she looked as just puzzled as the rest of us.
Like its TV namesake, which had doubters before it became a ratings knockout (pulling Justin Bieber, Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson for future episodes), Lip Sync Battle live could attract even bigger names for inevitable future concerts, following Monday's success. Maybe Anne Hathaway could swing by next time?
Lip Sync Battle airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT) on Spike TV.