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The Miss Education of Jenna Bush

nytheatre.com review by Eric Winick
August 15, 2005

Melissa Rauch is a pretty, engaging performer, and when you catch sight of her onstage as Presidential offspring/wild child Jenna Bush, you know you’re in for a treat. With Jenna’s penchant for partying, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and now, apparently, teaching fourth graders, the woman is begging to be parodied. So let’s consider ourselves lucky that Rauch rose to the challenge. With her vivacious demeanor and rock solid comic timing, her fingers on the pulse of politics and pop culture, she’s the perfect guide through the gnarled passages of Ms. Bush’s drug- and drink-addled brain.Set on the eve of the first day of Ms. Bush’s teaching assignment, the play (co-written by Rauch and Winston Beigel) finds Jenna ordering Chinese take-out (tough, as she can’t recall her address), cutting on her Yale-educated twin sister Barbara, and fathoming her parents’ decision not to attend her graduation from the University of Texas. As she anxiously awaits her food and considers outfits for the next day, Jenna relates anecdotes from her life—how she spent September 11th in a Chuck E. Cheese, how she got in trouble for sticking her tongue out at the press, and how smooching Mary Cheney wound up having unfortunate repercussions for gay people nationwide.Because most of the stories are told stream of consciousness, there’s a randomness to the proceedings that ultimately slows things down to a trickle. Major questions, such as why Jenna decided to become a teacher in the first place, are left unexplained. Jenna addresses the audience throughout, taking us into her confidence, but who are we? Sure, it’s a shame that Daddy never calls, but why should we sympathize with this dingbat? It’s fun to watch Jenna pour Jack Daniels into her Coke can, engage in ignorant conversation with a Chinese restaurant manager, and perform her infamous “butt dance,” but the fact is, lacking a convincing narrative, personal stakes, or any real action, Miss Education is little more than a vehicle for Rauch’s spot-on impersonation.Of course, the absence of an effective story arc mattered little to the audience the night I attended the show. People leapt to their feet at the show’s conclusion, applauding, I imagine, Rauch’s tireless performance. Still, 90 minutes is an awfully long time to draw out a single joke. The show would undoubtedly work as a sketch, either as a one-off or as the first in a continuing series (a la the Church Lady, or Wayne Campbell), but at its current length, the play loses steam, petering out about an hour in.Let’s hope Ms. Bush fares a bit better as she begins her foray into the real world.