Rachel Dratch wants you to know: She does not have a psychic. But would it be so surprising if she did? She discusses ghosts, astral projection and the supernatural on her weekly podcast, “Woo Woo.”
“Sometimes, because I have the podcast, I think it tips me into talking about a lot of this kooky stuff, and I’m not all about kooky stuff,” she said. “I guess it can come off that way, but I don’t care.”
It might have come off that way to readers of her 2012 memoir, “Girl Walks Into a Bar …,” since she shared a couple of prophetic dreams and an encounter with a channeler named Kendra. That channeler accurately predicted, on Dratch’s 43rd birthday, that she would one day become a mother — the next year, in 2010, Dratch gave birth to her son, Eli.
Dratch, now 60, manifested another dream she mentioned in the memoir, much to her fans’ delight: being cast in a Broadway comedy. Four years ago, she starred as Stephanie in “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.”
In late March, Dratch returned to the Broadway stage, this time as the Narrator in the revival of Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” at Studio 54. Not only has Dratch realized her wishes, but she has exceeded them — both roles have earned her Tony nominations.
Dratch admitted that some people in her life were surprised she was doing stage work. But, she said, “that’s actually where I started out.”
The veteran comedian — beloved for her “Saturday Night Live” characters like the endearing wet blanket “Debbie Downer” and Denise McDenna (also known as Zazu), the quintessential Bostonian — studied theater as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, spending a semester at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn. But her knack for improv took her to Second City in Chicago before she did seven seasons of “Saturday Night Live.” Her confidence onstage and her quick wit lend themselves perfectly to the demands of the role as the Narrator of “the late night, double feature picture show.”
The Consummate Host of Horrors
The role of the Narrator is often performed by an older white man. But Sam Pinkleton, the director of the latest “Rocky Horror” revival, envisioned Dratch in the role for a reason. While the Narrator can be a kind of tabula rasa, it’s a crucial part, too: Dratch serves as both host and guide, adding context as the story unfolds.
She is also a kind of bodyguard when the audience gets too rowdy. Occasionally, they do. “Rocky Horror” has a devoted fan base that attends the popular midnight screenings of the 1975 film version. Those events often include dressing as the characters, yelling obscenities at the screen and throwing toast and rice in the air.
“Sometimes 400 people are screaming one word at the same time, which Rachel is really prepared for,” said Pinkleton, who won a Tony last year for directing “Oh, Mary!” “Sometimes, one person in the balcony is screaming a line we’ve never heard before from their production of ‘Rocky Horror’ in Ohio,” he added. Dratch has to be ready for either.
“As an improviser, and as a host, she’s in a league of her own,” Pinkleton continued. “Nobody can do dry, understated, commanding humor quite like Rachel.”
Those familiar with her character Debbie Downer know what he means. As the resident killjoy, Dratch would deliver one miserable piece of news after another, a funny bit on its own. But the punchline would arrive wordlessly, as the camera zoomed in on her dour face, accompanied by the “womp-womp” of a sad trombone.
As the Narrator, Dratch modulates her presence, which can feel understated as she steps in and out of the show. Sometimes she plays the saxophone, other times she strolls quietly across the stage eating popcorn. At one recent performance, the audience erupted as soon as she appeared.
A Caretaker Amid the Chaos
It’s challenging to explain a joke — something inevitably is lost in translation — which is why it can be difficult to describe the droll humor Dratch brings to the stage.
“She does something that’s totally singular,” Pinkleton said. “It’s not so easily definable as other actors or comedians, where it’s like, this is their brand. She’s just, like, sneaky and elegant and genius.”
Stephanie Hsu, one of Dratch’s co-stars in “Rocky Horror,” was initially surprised to discover that Dratch is rather shy offstage. “I think she couldn’t even possibly perceive how incredibly sparkly and special she is,” Hsu said. But, Hsu added, her shyness made more sense as she got to know her.
Those who know Dratch best, like Irene Bremis, Dratch’s “Woo Woo” co-host and childhood friend from their time at Lexington High School in Massachusetts, paint her as unassuming and a great friend. “I think the only thing that could either match or supersede her talent is her heart,” Bremis said, adding that Dratch connects deeply with people, and that it “makes you feel like you’re the most important person in the world.”
“Rachel is always taking care of everything in her life that’s important, outside of what she has to do,” Bremis added.
This was evident when we met at Studio 54, as the untied laces of Dratch’s black, glittery sneakers dragged perilously along the floor. “Tying her shoes,” Bremis said, “becomes, like, the least important thing.”
But even those who don’t know Dratch personally are likely to find her disarmingly relatable, as when she made a cameo on the premiere episode of “Good Hang,” the podcast hosted by her friend and former “S.N.L.” castmate Amy Poehler. While Poehler and the other guests seemed ready to start, Dratch first appeared onscreen in the dark, the camera of her laptop pointed at the top half of her head as she walked through her apartment.
“There’s a 30 percent chance she strangles herself,” Seth Myers quipped as the camera cut to Dratch holding up a set of tangled headphones framing her face. Suddenly, she was interrupted by her doorbell and her dog barking. By the time she returned to her seat, Dratch said, through teary-eyed laughter, that the batteries of her microphone had died.
“That’s a pretty good example of who I am,” Dratch said. “I mean, I’m not that chaotic all the time, but that’s not out of character, let’s put it that way.”
At a time when celebrities often curate images of perfection, mishaps like Dratch’s are unexpected and refreshing.
“I honestly think that blooperish moment spoke to something deeper,” Poehler wrote in an email. “It reminded us that no one is perfect. Gentle teasing is a true love language. Hard laughs with friends are good medicine. And that Rachel Dratch is never not funny.”
Happy Hours
Becoming a mother at 44 drastically shifted Dratch’s perspective, as well as her priorities, she said. After she left “S.N.L.” in 2006, her career seemed to be slowing down, and she started to panic about her future.
“And then I sort of decided not to,” Dratch said. Four years later, she gave birth to Eli. Because she wasn’t working as much, she was able to spend quality time with her son while he was young. “It was a good lesson for me,” she said. “You just don’t know what’s coming.”
Instead of agonizing over her career, which, she said, “just leads to unhappiness,” Dratch enjoys going out for margaritas and laughing with friends.
“That’s my favorite thing to do,” she said. “But I don’t get to do it all that often, especially with the play. This play is really cutting into my marg time — get that down!” Dratch laughed, suddenly aware of how animated she had become.
Marg sessions, Dratch said, were often when she would hear about her friends’ esoteric encounters, which she filed away. Eventually, she would invite them to share their anecdotes on her podcast, “Woo Woo.”
“I burned through all the stories of my friends pretty quickly,” she said. “And now I joke around that I’m at a party, and I’m like, ‘Hey, you ever see a light flicker?’ Because I’m always looking for guests.”
When she began “Woo Woo,” Dratch estimated she was at, as she put it, “65 percent woo”; the podcast has brought her up to 95 percent. There’s no harm in crystals, she said, and though she is dubious about mediums, she’s not totally closed off to the concept. The jury’s still out on aliens. When it comes to astrology, “I’m very much a water sign,” she said.
The mystics of the zodiac may also hold some answers when it comes to Dratch’s ineffable appeal.
“What I think is really beautiful about someone like Rachel, who is so Pisces, is that her existence, her being, is sort of an invitation for us to find that within ourselves, too,” said Aliza Kelly, a celebrity astrologer who appeared on Dratch’s podcast. “So she invites people to find that play, that whimsy, that magic, that sort of ethereality, within themselves.”
That often happens on “Woo Woo,” where, as Dratch and Bremis frequently discuss, they stay curious, not closed off, making sure to honor the unknown.
“You’re going to see more magic if you’re open to the magic,” Dratch said. “So why not be open to the magic?”
Kasia Pilat, a social media editor for NYT Cooking and the Food section, reports on a range of topics and has published recipes.
The post ‘Debbie Downer’ Is Enjoying an Upswing appeared first on New York Times.
