‘White House Chicks ‘96’ Takes Shot at Politics as Usual

“White House Chicks ‘96” had no sooner opened at the Complex last week than Bob Dole announced he was resigning from the U.S. Senate. Coincidence? Or maybe just more McFodder for TV’s “The McLaughlin Group”?

Fred Barnes! Your thoughts!

Candidate Dole, shouting head John McLaughlin and Washington’s other usual suspects all take lumps in this timely but not-too-tart sendup of a (so far) astonishingly dull campaign season. Written and directed by James Grant Goldin and starring Saratoga Ballantine and Dea Lawrence, the show is a beefed-up version of “A Coupla White House Chicks Sittin’ Around Talkin’,” which featured the same personnel and last year pressed the flesh at various venues around town.

With matching blond ‘dos and red, white and blue power suits, Ballantine and Lawrence could pass for stumping Washington wives or maybe Junior League pinups. Until they open their mouths, that is.

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That’s when their deft mimicry and flawless timing help bolster the decidedly mixed bits in this expanded edition.

The duo reprise their impersonations of a harpy-ish Hillary Rodham Clinton (Lawrence) and vaultingly ambitious Tipper Gore (Ballantine). But with the former submerged in Whitewater and latter still best known as a music censor, Goldin wisely moves on to other, generally bipartisan targets, from neoconservative faves Heidi and Alvin Toffler to Hollywood’s radical chic.

The best bits have bite. In “Be a CEO,” two corporate flacks acknowledge a gross disparity in wages, with 5% of the U.S. population controlling 50% of the country’s wealth. “Your best chance for economic security?” they ask rhetorically. “Be part of that 5%.” And in “Call Us,” dirty old New Dealers can ring up phone-sex workers who breathlessly coo sweet nothings about tax-and-spend policy.

But no one’s going to confuse “White House Chicks” with a slash-and-burn address by Don Imus. Goldin and company leave a number of Clintonian millstones unturned, for example, Hillary-baiting columnist William Safire and the unknown author of “Primary Colors.”

In fact, a polish from Anonymous might help some passages. One song parody of Christian fundamentalists is both underwritten and disappointingly irreverence-free, while another of former Vietnam War apologist Robert S. McNamara’s memoirs just seems moldy (piano or other accompaniment would probably help, especially given the cavernous space).

But the show is still young, as is the presidential race, and there’s simply no contest at the moment as to which one is more fun to watch.

* “White House Chicks ‘96,” the Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Ends June 25. $8. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.