Rachel Dratch Shares How SNL Set Her Up for Broadway Success | Playbill

Video Rachel Dratch Shares How SNL Set Her Up for Broadway Success

The comedian is a current Tony nominee for her Broadway debut performance in POTUS.

Tony-nominated POTUS star Rachel Dratch visited The Tonight Show May 23 to talk with host and former SNL co-star Jimmy Fallon about making her Broadway debut. According to Dratch, her time on the long-running sketch show was great practice for her first Broadway outing.

"The pressure of SNL is you had to write something every week, so that was the thing that was really hard about SNL. This is just, like, you show up, it's all written for you. You just have the fun part. This part that I have in the play—I'm kind of the clown. I get to do a lot of physical stuff. It's really fun. It's kind of SNL style."

See Dratch's full appearance above.

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive officially opened at Broadway's Sam S. Shubert Theatre April 27. Twenty-eight year-old The Morning Show writer Selina Fillinger makes her Broadway debut as the work's playwright. Directed by Tony winner Susan Stroman, the limited engagement is set to run through August 14.

Co-starring with Dratch are Tony winner (and 2022 Tony nominee) Julie White, Lilli Cooper, Vanessa Williams, Lea DeLaria, Julianne Hough, and Suzy Nakamura. Hough and Nakamura make their Broadway debuts with the production.

The work, a 2019 selection for the Killroys' List, is described as a "modern farce," centering on a PR nightmare that befalls the White House as seven female support staff risk everything to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. Cooper stars as Chris, DeLaria as Bernadette, Dratch as Stephanie, Hough as Dusty, Nakamura as Jean, White as Harriet, and Williams as Margaret.

Rounding out the company are understudies Anita Abdinezhad, Gisela Chípe, Jennifer Fouché, and Lisa Helmi Johnason. The production also features voiceovers from E. Clayton Cornelius, Richard Gatta, Pat Kiernan, Kevin Ligon, JC Montgomery, and Ari Shapiro.

POTUS features scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Sonoyo Nishikawa, sound design by Jessica Paz, hair and wig design by Cookie Jordan, fight and intimacy direction by Rocio Mendez, and make-up design by Kirk Cambridge-Del Pesche. Casting is by Taylor Williams, with Johnny Milani serving as production stage manager.

See New Images of Vanessa Williams, Julianne Hough, Lea Delaria, Rachel Dratch and the company of POTUS

 
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