Debbie Downer No More! Rachel Dratch on Tony Award Nomination for the 'Joy Bomb' POTUS

Broadway's biggest night is just days away, and The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal is celebrating first-time Tony nominees. Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek sat down with Girl From the North Country's Jeannette Bayardelle, The Skin of Our Teeth's Gabby Beans, POTUS'  Rachel Dratch, MJ's Myles Frost and Take Me Out's Michael Oberholtzer. Here's a sneak peek of this special episode!

For Rachel Dratch, making people laugh comes naturally. The veteran comedian, known for seven seasons on Saturday Night Live where she created iconic characters like Debbie Downer, is giving a Tony-nominated performance in Selina Fillinger's satire POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. "This was definitely on my dream board," she said of the Broadway debut. "I've had a few things I want to achieve and one was to do Shakespeare in the Park and one was to do Broadway. The Tonys weren't even on the board, so this is extra fun." 

In POTUS, Dratch plays Stephanie, the President's anxious secretary who listens to a 'Bitch Beats' playlist while practicing power poses to gain confidence. "When I saw this part, it just seemed like it had a lot of fun in it," Dratch said. "When you read a joke on the page, you don't know what's going to work and what's not. Sometimes the jokes that you think are really funny don't get anything, and things you didn't even know were jokes get a huge laugh. The first night we did it in front of an audience, every single joke got laughs. After that very first show, we just looked at each other like 'This totally works.' Every single part of it. Every single joke, there isn't one that fell flat."

Although Dratch has spent the last 20 years working on live shows, movies and television, she says there's a difference when it comes to Broadway. "I get this sense when the audience is laughing that they're not only laughing at the play, but there's this extra layer of 'Haha we're out and we're having fun.' They're also excited just to be laughing," she said. "It's this rabid energy that comes from them in a really fun way. There's something about the shared experience and hearing 1,000 people laughing. That's really just the fun of it all. It's the joy bomb of the whole thing."

With POTUS set to end its limited run at the Shubert Theatre on August 14, Dratch is already dreaming up her next stage gig. "It's funny because I always thought if I were on Broadway, I'd want it to be exactly this kind of part that I have right now," she said. "I wanted to play someone like who I am in the first act. Someone that's almost like a scullery maid, and that's kind of what I am. So, I guess I manifested that? If I were to do another Broadway thing, I'd want it to be something as big of a comic role as this is, which that's a very tall order because this is beyond my dreams of what I could imagine."

The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal 2022 Tony Awards Special airs on 100+ stations across the country all weekend and in New York City on PIX11 at 6:30PM ET on Tony Sunday, June 12.

The Broadway Show Credits: Directed by Zack R. Smith | Executive Producers: Tamsen Fadal, John Gore, Lauren Reid and Rich Jaffe | Tony Shoot Producers: Paul Wontorek, Caitlin Moynihan and Lindsey Sullivan | Videographers: Alexander Goyco, Mark Hayes and Nick Shakra | Production assistant: Joanne Villani

Photo Credits: Photography by Emilio Madrid | Styling: Eliza Yerry and Maggy Francois (for Myles Frost) | Hair/Makeup: Rachel Estabrook and Earon Nealey | Photo assistant: Alan Padilla