BY TIM TOWNSEND

Leisure & Arts
Comedy Duo Splits Sides
Review of two-woman sketch
comedy show "Dratch & Fey."

July 7, 2000
New York -- Rachel Dratch and Tina Fey are portraying sisters straight out
of a warped Jane Austen novel. They flit about the stage, each reassuring the other
in fairly awful 19th-century British accents that she is the one most likely to land
the mysterious Mr. Willoughby, "the most eligible bachelor in all of
Shropfordshire." But Mr. Willoughby doesn't remain mysterious for long.

     In this sketch, the two Second City alumnae and current employees of
"Saturday Night Live" trade glowing reviews of the man they both hope to marry,
slowly building up Mr. Willoughby in their own minds:

     "He has the darkest eyes," says one sister.

     "And the most raven hair," says the other.

     "When he speaks, the air is filled with the smell of roasted meats."

     "He has the most delightful collection of neck moles."

     "His eyebrows are most expressive. Particularly the top one."

     "Mr. Willoughby reeks of yoo-rine."

     And so on . . .

     "I shall marry him nevertheless," the sisters finally sing-song in unison,
holding hands and skipping in a circle.

     The sketch is a high point among many high points in "Dratch & Fey," a
two-woman sketch-comedy show now playing at the very hip Upright Citizens
Brigade Theater in Manhattan. These two are heavyweights in the improvisational-
comedy world, and the crowd at their premiere last month proved it.

     Rob Siegel, editor of The Onion, the satirical weekly, brought his staff (10
seats near the front were set aside for them). Colin Quinn, "Saturday Night Live's"
news anchor, was in the house, and Jimmy Fallon, another "SNL" player, showed
up with flowers the following week. NBC executives and members of Comedy
Central's "Upright Citizens Brigade" ensemble, whose theater space is housing the
show, were also on hand.

     Tickets for the one-hour show (which plays Wednesdays through July, as
well as Mondays July 17 and 24; and in Los Angeles at the HBO Workspace on
July 10 and 11) are only $5, so audience members get a lot for their money --
enough to make it worth missing "Survivor."

     The "Mr. Willoughby" sketch was a new addition to the duo's show, which
ran last summer at Chicago's Second City, the Mecca for ensemble sketch comedy
with a tradition that includes names like John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray,
Mike Myers, Bonnie Hunt and Harold Ramis. Ms. Dratch and Ms. Fey both
trained at Second City (the members of the Upright Citizens Brigade are also
Chicago-trained improv comedians) and worked with the late and legendary Del
Close, the Lord-High-Everything-Else of improv comedy. (A shrine of sorts to Mr.
Close takes up a small wall in the theater's foyer.)

     More recently, Ms. Fey has worked as a "Saturday Night Live" writer for
the past three years, and was promoted to head writer last season (the first woman
to hold that position). Ms. Dratch joined the cast of the show last season as a
featured player and is waiting to hear whether she'll be asked back for next season.

     Their training as improvisational actors is apparent in "Dratch & Fey." The Second
City method, much like the method on "Saturday Night Live," is to work on an
idea in an improvised rehearsal setting, and when something clicks, commit it to
paper. Ms. Dratch and Ms. Fey streamlined the show in just two weeks before they
opened last summer in Chicago, where it was directed by Second City veteran (and
Ms. Fey's boyfriend) Jeff Richmond.

     On stage, Ms. Dratch, who "SNL" viewers will recognize as the Calista Flockhart
clone and the face of Elian Gonzalez on the show, uses skillful timing and her face
to great effect to communicate with the crowd. Her training with Second City has
given her extraordinary confidence with an audience, and here she bonds with each
soul in the small, 74-seat theater, often without saying a word. Some of Ms.
Dratch's biggest laughs follow some sort of facial maneuver -- her nose wrinkles or
her eyes widen at just the right moment.

     Ms. Fey seems less concerned with appealing to the room, and yet has the ability
to make us believe in an astounding range of characters. One minute she's slouched
in a chair, a trailer-park wife and mother, giving us a slice of her horrible life, "My
husband got the flesh-eating virus from a hot tub at the Day's Inn...so I guess we're
getting back together." And the next, she's a perky Playboy Playmate, chest out,
voice Monroe-breathless, visiting a hospital patient who's been mauled by a puma
at a local Burger King: "I heard your story on the news, and I was so inspired by
your bravery. You totally gave me the courage to leave my agent."

     While there isn't a cohesive, underlying theme in "Dratch & Fey," many of the
sketches have one foot in the absurd and another in the socially conscious. Usually
-- and thankfully -- the funny foot stomps much louder. Indeed, the opening skit
parodies "theater as social tool" by slamming two very different one-woman shows
against each other.

     Ms. Dratch tells the audience she will present a monologue about the life of
"Edwina Garth Burnham, pioneer for women's rights, mother, wife, aviatrix," and
that Ms. Fey's poet character will simultaneously do her one-woman show, in
which she rants -- graphically -- about the trials of a modern woman and her
genitalia. The contrast is superb, as is Mr. Richmond's directing, as the two
"performances" take turns knocking into each other.

     These two actors have lots of experience working together. They were cast
as co-ensemble members of the Second City revues "Citizen Gates" (1996) and
"Paradigm Lost" (1997), for which Ms. Dratch won Chicago's prestigious Joseph
Jefferson Award recognizing excellence in local theater. She won another one the
following year for her work in her last Second City revue, "Promise Keepers,
Losers Weepers."

     Indeed, the fun part of watching these two perform together is seeing how
comfortable they are with each other, as if they are in somebody's basement putting
on a show for a bunch of friends. It's also interesting to see two very funny women
working as a team. Interesting because there have been so few two-woman
comedy teams. (Kathy & Mo and French & Saunders in the 1990s. Before that --
who? Ball & Vance?)

     Yet there's an obvious down side to this. It is safe to say that Dratch and
Fey -- should they continue to work together -- will, unfortunately, always be
tagged as a female comedy team, rather than as a comedy team plain and simple.
But "Dratch & Fey" isn't about two women being funny. Any more than Abbot and
Costello got laughs because they were a couple of guys. Dratch and Fey are just
funny. Period.
 

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