Tripped Up By Libidos And Hubris Rachel Dratch in ‘Tail! Spin!,’ a Political Comedy of Errors
Charles IsherwoodOctober 2, 2014: No sex please, you’re politicians. Or if you must, just hold the hypocrisy. Well, I can dream, can’t I? In Tail! Spin!, a clever comedy revisiting hanky-panky-in-high-office scandals, we are reminded how frequently sexual misbehavior and political posturing have clashed, to mortifying effect, in the lives of elected American officials in recent years. Drawing exclusively on the public record of news conferences, confessional television interviews, emails, tweets and resignation speeches of the four men involved — yes, all men, surprise! — the playwright Mario Correa and the director Dan Knechtges have concocted a play that turns these unseemly stories into mordantly funny burlesque. The production, which opened at the Lynn Redgrave Theater on Wednesday, comes trimmed in mock-patriotic trappings that accentuate the contrast between the, ahem, dignity of office and the luridness of the scandals. A sturdy wooden lectern is a central prop, and a giant bald eagle insignia, looking strangely lascivious, leers from the backdrop. The five actors, who include the Saturday Night Live alumna Rachel Dratch, play several roles each, with the four male performers each taking on one of the celebrated miscreants. (Ms. Dratch plays “wives, tails, beards and Barbara Walters.”)
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