Review: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler return to Chicago stages after 30 years, and it’s all charm
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What do you call what Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did at the Rosemont Theatre Friday night?
Vaudeville? A 100-minute comedy hang? A sweet, loosely organized catch-up between Chicago-bred comics and their audience? A live dual portrait of old friends? Whatever you call it, they’re doing it all weekend, next in three sold-out shows at the Chicago Theatre, and if you couldn’t pull the trigger on the pricey tickets, or simply find a ticket before resell pirates began demanding cretinous, Taylor Swift-ish prices, I hate to say ... Sometimes charm, authenticity and a distinct lack of a rigidly-executed show is enough.
Sounds like a backhanded compliment, but I promise: It’s all compliment. Their “Restless Leg Tour,” which is making a tentative tiptoe into a handful of cities this spring, presumably as a test run for grander plans, is a victory lap and reminder of how comfortably Fey and Poehler ping off each other. To the song “For Good” from “Wicked,” Fey sang to Poehler: “I do believe you make me slightly better.” And Poehler sang to Fey: “We are work friends and we see each other at work.” They would have done the actual song, Fey said, but they would have had to pay for rights, negating the point of the tour.
The beauty was in the casualness, the intimacy they somehow achieved through the touches they can’t control: Poehler’s openhearted cackle; Fey’s dyspeptic side-eye. Poehler did a terrible impression of Richard Dreyfuss in “Jaws” and gave a shoutout to Gen-X (“We remember people!”). Fey, wearing a T-shirt reading “Mother,” said being a mother was like being the guy controlling Kermit the Frog: “If you’re doing your job right, nobody should notice and you’re just a filthy hippy sitting on a dirt floor.” They referred to each other as basically colleagues. “Common law comedy wives.” “Work husbands.” They relayed this so often you know there’s a truth there and a bond that transcends it.
Whatever poignancy they generate, it lands doubly here.
They don’t know exactly when they met, but they know it was about 30 years ago in Chicago. After opening the Rosemont show in knockoff Golden Globe glitter dresses, they climbed into ‘90s wigs and clothes and danced through a recounting of their Chicago years: Before a backdrop of the Buckingham Fountain, they talked about both taking Second City classes, both performing with the then-Improv Olympic and both working miserable jobs on the side. Fey, who lived in Rogers Park, worked at the front desk at the YMCA in Evanston, dodging the harassment of its residents. Poehler, who waitressed in scores of restaurants, also worked the phones for Steppenwolf, soliciting donors to donate more.
Since they couldn’t recall their first meeting, they used improv to recreate it. They asked the audience for prompts, and took them. “You had brown hair and I had blond hair,” Poehler said, “and we all know that’s the only way women can be friends.”
Again, I have to ask, what should you call all this?
Both did stand-up — and as jarring as it is to see them slipping into the familiar rhythms of the seasoned road comic (Fey used her set to mock the format), they also sort of killed. In their gowns, they slipped into award-show mockery. Fey: “Ben Affleck is not here tonight. He’s busy slamming car doors behind J Lo.” Poehler: “Chicago, home of Central Standard Time.” They rolled out on office chairs from opposite ends of the stage and, to a roaring audience, did a new “Weekend Update” segment, with guest star. (I won’t spoil the surprise, but it’s good.) At the end, in pajamas, curled into large chairs, they wound down the night with reminiscing and fielded questions from the audience.
If we have to give a name to this, call it Live Charm.
They took the idea for the tour, they’ve told talk shows, from Steve Martin and Martin Short, who have paraded their friendship in a similar show for years. (Indeed, Martin and Martin return to the Chicago Theatre in June.) It’s not a new idea. Hugh Jackman’s arena shows, which play like pleasant old-school showbiz reviews, deliver a bit of comedy, song, dancing, storytelling. But the genre only works when the performer is genuine, self-deflating and, most importantly, their fame is incidental. They were you once, in an audience, and they show delight in your delight.
As Poehler said, way back when, she froze on her bike riding through another Chicago winter, but “it was a magical time when you could make up a show on the spot — a tradition we continue to this day!”
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler “Restless Leg Tour” continues through May 21 at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.; tinaamytour.com
