Tina Fey & Amy Poehler
Restless Leg Tour
Fox Theatre
Saturday, April 5
I didn’t have high expectations for this show at all.
That’s really not Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s fault. To be clear, I’ve loved everything that duo has ever done together and on their own.
There is an increasing trend, however, of celebrities hitting the road for a live tour and providing little more than a quick discussion and a Q&A with the audience on stage.
In some cases, that can be enough! I’ve worked on some of these tours, hosting live interviews on stage with legends like Alan Ruck (“Succession,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”), John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) and the sci-fi legend William Shatner who, at the age of 93, was still spry, quick and eager to please a packed house.
But I wanted more from Tina and Amy, who come from improv pedigrees that I was so hopeful they would dial into.
They nailed it.
The formula was brilliant. “What if we went back over our 30-year career starting back in the '90s at Second City in Chicago to the heights of our success today, acting it out along the way and delivering video montages of everything you love about us to move it along?”
There was original music. There was on-the-spot improv built from the audience's suggestions. There were insider, behind-the-scenes stories of working on shows like “30 Rock,” "Parks and Rec," and "Saturday Night Live."
Speaking of "Saturday Night Live," they even brought out the "Weekend Update" set pieces (well, a table with a cloth that read "Weekend Update") on it to bring back the duo in one of their greatest late night forms. The crowd went crazy when Rachel Dratch appeared to reprise her role as "Debbie Downer," putting a damper on Tina and Amy's plans for summer.
The tandem kept setting the tone with callbacks that paid huge dividends, like Amy subtlety reminding the audience just how much money Tina has, and Tina returning the favor to Amy by reminding her that they are "just work friends."
Talk about the ability to read a room and give Detroit exactly what it wants, inside of an absolutely packed-to-the-gills Fox Theatre, one of the city’s most gorgeous old theatres.
With the help of stand-up comedian Zarna Garg opening up the show, the performance clocked in at just under two hours -- a great return for the steep cost of a ticket.
And just like they’ve been setting the standard of comedy for the past 30 years, Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler’s stage show is a new standard for what to expect from your favorite celebrities when they hit the road and bring the varying degrees of a “show” to your town.
