\t\t\t\t\t(L-R): Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer and Maya Rudolph in conversation. <\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Hollywood Reporter<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tWe have two Broadway veterans and Tony nominees this season as well as Maya making her Broadway debut. How does it all feel to be on Broadway at the same time?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tAna Gasteyer:<\/strong> Magical.<\/p>\n \n\tMaya<\/strong> Rudolph: <\/strong>Fucking amazing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRachel Dratch:<\/strong> We haven\u2019t celebrated yet.<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>We immediately got to work. Everyone got to work.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>It\u2019s so hard! There\u2019s a lot of daily [text] exchanges regarding how hard it is. So that\u2019s nice, and it\u2019s nice to have fellowship and to see one another\u2019s shows, which is the best.<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>It is pretty crazy. I really underestimated how insanely tiring this is. It\u2019s really hard. Ana\u2019s like my godmother. She\u2019s done this so well before that when I was getting sick, when I was saying, \u201cIt\u2019s rehearsal, and I don\u2019t know my lines,\u201d she really truly walked me through everything and it makes you feel so much better to have a friend who understands this is the process of it, and it\u2019s unlike anything you\u2019ve ever done before. Especially because I think everyone thinks that we know what we\u2019re doing on Broadway just from Saturday Night Live<\/em>, but they\u2019re different animals.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>They are different animals. I said this to Maya, but I really realized it in this process for Schmigadoon<\/em>, that SNL<\/em> training, the kind of person, the kind of weird mutant skin that we all share is incredible with regards to the live audience and feeding off it. But it\u2019s really mostly about the speed with which you think and work and trust your instincts. So there\u2019s a lot of choicemaking that\u2019s really fast. And that is true when you replace [in a role]. But the process part of Broadway, which is much slower and more cautious, like when we were both going through previews in Schmigadoon!<\/em> and Rocky Horror<\/em> is actually the uncomfortable space for our kind of performer.<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>I don\u2019t even know. Someone just said like, \u201cDo you want to join the NBA?\u201d And I just started dribbling. That\u2019s what it feels like. It feels insane.<\/p>\n \n\tDo you have an idea of what or when your eventual Broadway celebration will be?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>I\u2019ll be done way before they are, so I\u2019m ready to party July 5.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> When we get to the other side of the Tony Awards, just because when you\u2019re working during the day with press and promotional stuff and then doing the show at night \u2026 And for me, because I scream so much, and I have a patter song, and I\u2019m singing. And you scream a lot too [Maya], I would imagine.<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph:<\/strong> Yeah, but I don\u2019t have a patter song. That song is insane.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>Yeah, you have to be focused. It\u2019s a weird track too because it putters along all of act one and all of act two and then it explodes. It\u2019s like being shot out of a canon.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> And then she blows the roof off the joint.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> It\u2019s just a big explosion, sort of, at the end of the track. So you have to calibrate your adrenal glands.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph:<\/strong> Is that what happens when dogs go to the vet?<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>Yes, exactly what happens. But what about your track [Dratch]?<\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> I sit in a chair much like this and talk to the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGastyer:<\/strong> I feel like you hustle around stage.<\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> I hustle a little bit, but it\u2019s not as physical as, of course, an Oh, Mary!<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> And the dress. Is the dress heavy?<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph:<\/strong> The dress is heavy. I started working out and lifting weights specifically for the hoop skirt and I\u2019m in LaDucas, like in dance heels. And it\u2019s a loose corset. It\u2019s a lot. And also just moving for 80-straight minutes is exhausting.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>But you have to manage the audience every day, [Dratch].<\/p>\n \n\tDratch: <\/strong>So my alert thing is when you just go in and do a show and you can just go kind of on automatic, but for this, the audience is shouting out different things every day. So I have to be vigilant.<\/p>\n \n\tYou do handle the brunt of the Rocky Horror<\/em> callouts, of which there are many. Have any stood out to you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> Usually it\u2019s the same callouts that everyone knows, and then occasionally it\u2019s one that\u2019s like hurr? I mean some I can\u2019t even repeat here. There was a real doozy a couple weeks ago. Last night, someone yelled out about the Spanish Armada, which was this Jeopardy<\/em> moment that\u2019s about me, not the character. Sometimes I get a little thrown, but it\u2019s fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>I bet the audience is trying to be funny too, for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDratch<\/strong>: I want to make them feel like it\u2019s OK to shout out, but also I have to still be driving the bus.<\/p>\n \n\tYou talked about Broadway being very different from SNL<\/em>, but were there things that SNL<\/em> has helped prepare you to do on Broadway?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> We all started doing theater actually before SNL<\/em>. These guys were in the Groundlings and I did Second City. So we were in front of audiences every night, like reading a comedy audience, for many years and then SNL<\/em> takes that and blows it up into another thing. So it almost feels like going back to before SNL<\/em>, for me, anyway. But I think SNL<\/em> gives you the experience of just, I don\u2019t know \u2026 the chops. I\u2019m going to say the word chops. I hate that word, by the way.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s just the immediacy. It\u2019s sort of the high skill set of just making the choice quickly and really practical things like quick changes and wig prep and stuff like that. But I don\u2019t feel like the audience experience of SNL<\/em> is at all similar to the audience experience of Broadway. I feel like the fourth wall of Broadway is much cozier and there\u2019s more connection and it\u2019s sustained. There\u2019s no commercial breaks, there\u2019s nobody pulling you out of it. The creative process is very intimate at SNL<\/em>, but I feel like the public facing camera part is what ends up on Saturday Night Live<\/em>. So it\u2019s funny that there\u2019s a lot of people who say, \u201cOh, you\u2019ve done live before,\u201d but there\u2019s something about a camera that changes the way you\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> Well, also at SNL,<\/em> you have that one shot and then [here] you can hone it, figure out what works. But SNL<\/em>, you\u2019re really just going off that night\u2019s instincts.<\/p>\n \n\tI was wondering if going through SNL<\/em> helps with the nerves of doing Broadway.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>It\u2019s different I think.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>Were you nervous?\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>Fucking terrified. Because there\u2019s no tightrope, and I really didn\u2019t know my lines on opening night.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer<\/strong>: Now you\u2019re going public to say that?<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph:<\/strong> I mean, I\u2019ve been saying it for a while [laughs]. And the beautiful part is the support of the cast and this happens to be an incredible cast who knows the show so well and they all said it individually, \u201cWe\u2019ve got you, don\u2019t worry.\u201d And it was true and they know the show so well. That\u2019s the thing is that people have you. I know we\u2019re comparing a lot to SNL<\/em>, but we read from cue cards so we\u2019re actually not really looking at each other when we\u2019re performing and that connection\u2019s totally different. And now when I really lock in and focus on the other actor, I\u2019m so much more present and clearer and I\u2019m like, \u201cWow, I\u2019m really acting.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>SNL<\/em>, the reason that they have cue cards, and I want to say this because a lot of people don\u2019t know this, they think it\u2019s a laziness move, but because of the nature of live television and the fact that it contracts and expands with the audience, there are rewrites that are happening in real time, which is why the cue cards are happening to begin with. So you are really married to those cards, even if you wrote the sketch because it could be changing. There were times where somebody on the ground is literally rewriting your lines as it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n \n\tWere you all big theater kids growing up?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>Honestly, I think the truth is I have always wanted to do this since I was a little kid. I thought I was going to be in Annie <\/em>the minute I fell in love with Annie<\/em> [Ana high-fives Rachel and then Maya] and then if not, it was going to be some version of Grease<\/em> and then the movie Fame,<\/em> if they ever decided to make that a Broadway musical, which is not a bad idea. But those were my three, like that\u2019s the trifecta of greatness.<\/p>\n \n\tI saw some high fives for <\/strong>Annie<\/em><\/strong>. Are you big <\/strong>Annie <\/em><\/strong>fans?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>Who isn\u2019t?<\/p>\n \n\tDratch: <\/strong>It\u2019s like you saw it when you were the age of the people in it, so then you\u2019re like, how do I get up there?<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer<\/strong>: And I sang \u201cTomorrow\u201d in Salute to Broadway<\/em>. I don\u2019t know if you guys remember, Salute to Broadway<\/em>? Fifth grade? And Lisa Bolman\u2019s mom said that she thought I could probably do it on Broadway.<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph:<\/strong> You\u2019re so lucky. That\u2019s a childhood dream come true.<\/p>\n \n\tAna, you\u2019re playing the uptight mayor\u2019s wife, but you also have a somewhat villainous arc. Are you enjoying playing a villain?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> Oh, for sure. I mean, I obviously have always been playing villains because I just project that to people.<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>It\u2019s called character actors.<\/p>\n \n\tDratch: <\/strong>Wait, can I just say what I love when Ana does, aside from the song that, like I said, blows the roof off the joint, but then later you notice her, she\u2019s on the sidelines and she\u2019s getting all bent out of shape at the town and she\u2019s just off in the crowd harrumphing, and it just killed me.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>She\u2019s definitely like a person who really knows right from wrong and I\u2019m such a people pleaser, so it\u2019s fun to play somebody who\u2019s such a tight ass.<\/p>\n \n\tMaya, you said that you found your way into the character right before opening. How did you find it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRudolph:<\/strong> Honestly, I had seen the show and so when I first started rehearsals, I started speaking with a voice that I thought was Mary because I\u2019d seen it on stage and I was probably doing Jane [Krakowski] or whatever I\u2019d seen first, and then slowly I realized through rehearsals, \u201cI don\u2019t know about this voice. I feel like it\u2019s not\u2026\u201d And then the director looked at me and said, \u201cYou can bring your own voice.\u201d And I feel like it just, everything just completely flooded out of me. All the things that I can make it mine, because then I feel like I\u2019m not trying to fit into something that\u2019s already existing. I am part of something that\u2019s already existing, and then I feel like I belong there.<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s interesting because you were talking about the villain a second ago. I was thinking like Mary is the villain, which is such a crazy thing because as a character actor, I\u2019m never the star. I\u2019m always the villain and that\u2019s the most fun. That\u2019s the best friend with sassy lines or whatever, but to be the lead and be the villain is the most delicious meal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat made these the right roles for you, Ana and Rachel?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> Dratch and I also counseled each other on our two existing jobs, which I love. You called and said \u2018Should I do Rocky Horror<\/em> and I called you and said, \u2018Should I do Schmigadoon<\/em>?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> And we both said yes.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> Yes<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>In unison?\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer: <\/strong>They were separate times, but yes. <\/strong>It\u2019s so nice because we have this sort of council of elders that we can confer with and I really inherently trust the taste of my girlfriends.<\/p>\n \n\tDratch: <\/strong>Well for me, [director] Sam Pinkleton, I knew him a little bit and then he just emailed me like, \u201cWould you want to do this? \u201d And I wrote back immediately, \u201cYes.\u201d It was just my gut response and then I asked Ana and she said yes too.<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer<\/strong>: My Broadway debut was the last revival of Rocky Horror<\/em>. So I knew the show and I was like, \u201cYou\u2019re going to crush it.\u201d It\u2019s so fun. It has such a huge fan base.<\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> And it\u2019s just also like, in the now. I feel like it\u2019s just fun to do something that\u2019s such a party and so kind of subversive.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> Rachel\u2019s such a joy-forward person and in our friend group, so good about making choices that are about the happy thing to do. I respect her for that so much. And so equivalently, she was like, \u201cYou\u2019re going to have fun if you do Schmigadoon<\/em>! The music\u2019s fantastic.\u201d And P.S. we do all say no to lots of things. So it\u2019s very validating. I trust her instincts around joy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI do think that we\u2019re pretty good at making people happy, and I love that we\u2019re in this era where it\u2019s much more about like, let\u2019s just do the part that\u2019s truly about being joy-forward and having fun. I don\u2019t know about you guys, but my manager\u2019s always like, \u201cI think you should read for this dramatic part.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cAghhh. It\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRudolph: <\/strong>It\u2019s too late. Well, you get to a point in life where you want to enjoy what you\u2019re doing and also you have proven yourself and you know what is moving for you and exciting for you to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGasteyer:<\/strong> I mean, I find Schmigadoon!<\/em> plenty moving in a hilarious way, but I think, generally, it\u2019s harder and harder to access joy every day. The only thing is that I don\u2019t have enough time to have drinks with Uncle Dratch, but I will soon.<\/p>\n \n\tDratch:<\/strong> That\u2019s how you\u2019re going to really access joy.<\/p>\n \n\tThis interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just mentioning the fact that Saturday Night Live alums Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch are on Broadway at the same time is enough to send Rudolph and Gasteyer into song.\u00a0 \u201cCome on, take it Dratch!\u201d Gasteyer says mid-intro of \u201cOn Broadway.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cShe immediately gave up,\u201d Rudolph laughs.\u00a0 But all three agree that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[4830,649,2467,4832,4831,4828,1981,4829,4833],"class_list":["post-5372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fashion","tag-ana","tag-broadway","tag-comparisons","tag-dratch","tag-gasteyer","tag-maya","tag-rachel","tag-rudolph","tag-snl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5374,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5372\/revisions\/5374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}