When Rachel Drych enters Broadway, the women’s ensemble is a farce POTUS: Or, behind every great fool are seven women trying to save him.The audience responds with the same enthusiasm as the greeting to an old friend. He is best known for his work on NBC from 1999 to 2006. Live streaming on Saturday night With what was once one of the show’s most famous actors – Will Farrell, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poller, Seth Myers and Darrell Hammond – were just a few of the stars of those seasons – Drech created one of SNL’s series. Debbie Downer’s more enduring characters never look to the bright side that can turn even the happiest case into a grim observation. “Have you considered the loss of life from the African diamond industry?” Debbie may have told a newly married family member on Thanksgiving.
POTUS However, viewers will only see Debbie Downer’s latest poignant hint in the movie Ditch. POTUS The Play: Broadway debut, which earned the actor his first Tony Award nomination. He and Julie White (Tony winner the puppy smiled2006) were both nominated for Best Leading Actress (Beowulf Borit Costume is also in Tony Race).
As Stephanie, Drech plays the White House secretary who, at least at a young age, experiences constant fear and insecurity with an ax in hand. Stephanie is one of seven women who work for, are married or have been friends with a president on the American stage whose latest mistake: she publicly uttered obscenities to describe her first. Lady (Vanessa Williams) – Threatens to overthrow her administration and possibly world peace.
In the comedy, by Celina Fellinger and directed by Susan Stroman, which features a satire, the character of Dra ჩ is transformed with the help of some illegal substance that he inadvertently consumes, from nervous suppression to stage hijacking. .
Deadline has made a qualitative leap, as you can also see in the next film. i love my dadTo talk about his Broadway debut, Tony nomination, and where he found inspiration for Stephen’s drug-induced hysteria.
This interview has been edited and compressed for length and clarity.
Deadline: Tell me what your reaction to the pitch nomination is.
Rachel right: My God, I just mean the world of dreams. Like, excited, amazed, shocked, all in one, all right.
Deadline: You’ve already been on stage, off Broadway, but POTUS It is her Broadway debut and she gets a nomination. It must be pretty dizzying.
DRATCH: I was already very excited to be on Broadway in this play. There is a lot of laughs every night so it was already a lot of fun and then Tony’s case was just this crazy dish that was already on a great cake.
Deadline: how was this project born for you?
DRATCH: I’ve never heard of it, but I think it happened because I recently read Susan Stromen, the director. And then she did it for a one night show. I’m mad about you At Lincoln Center, which I was a part of and where I had a comic role. So I’ve worked with him a couple of times. I think that’s why he thought of me for this great comedy.
And at first I wasn’t sure. Broadway hours are no joke. And after Covid and all, I was totally excited for my summer. But I had a two minute conversation with Susan and then I thought, okay, I’ll do it. He’s very persuasive bluntly because he’s such a cool person, so you want to work with him.
Deadline: Did he come to you specifically for this role? Because it suits your talent very well.
DRATCH: As if I want to participate in this show? So I thought, is Stephen’s part open? And he said yes. He was one of the main roles that wasn’t filmed, and that was the part that really fascinated me because he’s kind of a clown role with a lot of energy and toys. That was the part that moved me the most.
Deadline: Was the role developed after arriving on the ship?
DRATCH: It was all in the script, every line and every stage it goes through. Selina, the playwright, revealed everything. It was all out of Selina’s mind.
Deadline: I can’t wait to hear what this chemical is, Stephanie.
DRATCH: [Laughs] Okay, I guess … I mean, I haven’t been on a lot of drugs in my day, so I don’t have much to work on, but I guess it’s something acidic. I’ve never done acid, but I did. When I was 20, I made a mistake: I was traveling. I was in Amsterdam. And I was wrong, I ate what’s called a cosmic pie, which I think was straight hash. I didn’t even know that after so many years I could take advantage of my bad trip. It was once that I was involved in something, and that really helps me in that regard.
DEADLINE: Method of action.
DRATCH: One of the things I love about this role is that in the first act it’s a rat-like person who wants to do everything right and that’s the energy I identify with. And then there’s your whole journey, let’s say, up to the second action. One of the characters names the stages they will go through [“visions, belligerence, mania, unquenchable sexual thirst, and vomiting”] And it does.
And I have to say that I have a kind of prejudice when someone starts telling a story that starts, for example, Oh my God, the craziest thing has happened to me. I’m just screaming, obviously it happened because I was on drugs. For example, where is the funny thing about this? But that’s why I think it’s ridiculous, because I can be the kind of person who follows all the rules and then manages to get away from it all. I guess I can’t really watch it because I’m high. I see him more as someone whose identity card will come out, in many different ways. This is what makes it really fun. This is how I approach: what if you could say what you want and not worry about who you will offend and take all the power, you know, physically, emotionally, everything? This is what’s really fun every night.
Deadline: I think Stephanie is, to a certain extent, the spirit of the play; this is what happens when oppression and repression are simply released.
DRATCH: Something I’ve just discovered is that he does all these power poses at first; in fact, there is a TED talk about these power poses for women to feel safer in the workplace. But then your entire second action is almost To take power, of course Have Power. It’s fun to jump from point A to point B.
Deadline: how SNL Are you preparing for Broadway? Or him?
DRATCH: Well, like you said, I did a lot of theater, but I also did a lot of sketches and I enjoyed it. POTUS Whether or not all of this is part of the game and works with the big A, but you’ll still be able to bring a lot of experience to the sketches it contains. I’ve acted in plays where I’m kind of a supporting part of the play, but that’s the clown of the play. These are many physical things. For me this is the perfect mix. It could be more of a second city [feel] What SNL Because you are on stage every night, in front of a live audience, as if you were a live spectator. SNLYou are familiar with cameras and you know, this is just a small snippet of the scene. So it’s really fun to walk with the audience on this ride and this giant house of people laughing at every joke.
SNL There’s been a dream come true and being in movies and it’s all so funny, but there’s something about knowing your part and not writing anything, you know what I mean? It’s just you and the audience every night and this is my place of joy.
Timeframe: Does the audience change overnight? Are they laughing in the same places?
DRATCH: Yes, more or less the same thing every night, on good terms. I’ve been to some shows that you’re in, God, it doesn’t work where overnight you can have bad people, or let’s say Calm A house where the jokes don’t come. I’ve been to them, but it works pretty much every time we do it.
Deadline: The night I was there, as soon as you showed up, Seth turns around and there you are, the audience went crazy. Does it happen every night?
DRATCH: Vanessa Williams and I are in this scene. I have to share with you …
Deadline: You can share.
DRATCH: But there is love, yes, I mean, it happens almost every day. We all take ours [entrance] moments. I think everyone is excited to see us all.
Deadline: Is there anything you learned from your actors? I’m not asking you to review them all, but …
DRATCH: reminds me of the magician SNL, Truly. that I loved SNL It was that everyone was so funny, but in their own way, and that’s a game too. It’s shot very well and everyone has a very different energy …
Term: Really different energies. You have Julie White, who is very well known among theatergoers, and then you have Juliana Howe, who is new to Broadway and better known on television, and for some reason, yes, they blend …
DRATCH: Julie White is Good It’s nice to have a stressed out person trying to control everything and be the smartest person in the room – I love to watch her do it every night – and then Juliana, who is very beautiful and a ballerina and a blonde beauty on top of her character, and you think the character is going to be such a stupid blonde, for lack of a better word, only to find out she’s not what she is at all. And Juliana is so smart and so funny. I love how a part of her falls apart every night.
Deadline: Look for any differences in audience reaction after Roe v. Did the news about Wade come out?
DRATCH: Yes. At first there is a line that seemed almost random. You think Juliana’s character is someone who gets caught and tricked, but she often has that line, oh. Do not, I am truly a political thinker. It has a line that says that cheap and safe reproductive health care is a basic human right, and the day the leak was reported by the Supreme Court, my God, we had to stop for so long. I mean, sure, yes, we’re in New York, but it took a long time to stop before the audience got mad. Like, cheer, yell and stand up. And the screams of men could also be heard. I mean, yell good. It was this moment of the show that people are really responding to now.
But also things like … You know, I said I’m doing these power poses and you know they’re a little silly. But with everything going on, now that I do the poses, I like it, yes! Give me the strength! At the bottom was a line that was somehow attached. We make this little musical curtain and at the end I go out and say, “We believe this truth is evident that all human beings are created equal, bones!” At first I thought, well, that’s the previous connection talk I was doing, but now that I say that, you can feel that energy in the room. For example, people scream and scream because they just want to be together in a room and share that joke, you know?
POTUS: Or, behind every great fool are seven women trying to save him.Written and directed by Celine Filinger, Susan Stroman stars Lily Cooper, Leah Delaria, Rachel Drach, Juliana Huff, Susie Nakamura, Julie White and Vanessa Williams. She performs at the Schubert Theater.
Source: Deadline
