Originally published in The Guardian UK • Written by Brian Logan

Ronna & Beverly have been given a shout out in The Guardian’s list of the best comedy to see this Christmas season. Read the whole article here.

Originally published in The Guardian UK • Written by Brian Logan

Way back when, Rob Brydon’s feckless chauffeur character Keith Barret had a relationship-counselling show on the Fringe. In his dealings with his guests, he hit on a winning formula: piss-take disguised as solicitous concern. Ronna and Beverly (alias US comics Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo) are up to something similar. They are Boston Jewish matriarchs, here to promote their book for divorcees You’ll Do a Little Better Next Time, and to grill on-stage guests about matters of the heart. If the guests don’t instantly want to marry and make babies, Beverly – two pairs of glasses competing for space on her face – wants to know why.

Anyone who has seen Joan Rivers in action will recognise the characters as no-nonsense Beverly (Denbo) and scatty Ronna (Chaffin) wrest control of our love lives. But the key relationship here is the one between our hosts, and it’s neatly realised. In their constant prattling over one another, we can trace the 20-year trajectory of their friendship. Now, in their absolutist middle years, they are loud, inappropriate, and they know what’s good for us.

But – as many a Jewish son or daughter will tell you – this kind of maternal intrusion isn’t always welcome. TV presenter Alex Zane ties himself in knots fending off their questions, and ends up, in one very awkward moment, elaborating on his apparent distaste for sex. (“God, this is not what I wanted to talk about tonight.”) Ronna is aghast: “I would use his entire body as a penis!” The interviews don’t always fly – but the clucking, bullying, bickering characters are irresistible.

Originally published in Spoonfed UK

They may not have become household names in the UK yet, but over in their native Los Angeles, Ronna Glickman and Beverly Ginsburg have become the most popular interfering Jewish mothers on the block. The two colourful characters have been hosting their own live chat show for years at Hollywood’s UCB Theatre, with guests including Matthew Perry, Janeane Garofalo and Russell Brand.

The show developed such a cult following that it was picked up for a pilot by US cable network Showtime last year. When the network made clear it was going to shaft the ladies’ TV special to the graveyard slot, the American comedy circuit went into uproar, with stars such as The Office‘s Rainn Wilson and Juno writer Diablo Cody tweeting to their millions of followers to watch the show despite its late start time. Although Showtime didn’t decide to pick up the pilot, the campaign generated a considerable amount of hype, and their continuing base of celebrity fans have made Ronna and Beverly a force to be reckoned with.

Luckily the talent bookers at the Soho Theatre have their finger right on that pulse, so next week the ladies are hitting London for their first ever live UK shows. We caught up with the delightful old ducks before they prepare to hit Old Blighty.

You’re visiting London to perform at the Soho Theatre this month. Is this the first time you’ve visited London? Is there anything in particular you’re looking forward to seeing in the city?

Beverly: Billy Elliot! I’ve seen the movie and the play in NYC. Can’t wait to see it here where it was born! Oh! And The Eye. I love Ferris wheels. To me, it makes London feel like a big carnival.

Ronna: I love London. I’ve been here more times than I can count. I like to have breakfast at Fortnum & Mason, pop into the V&A, see everything at the National, then fly home.

Can you give us any clues as to who you’ll be interviewing in the shows?

Ronna: Nothing compares to doing the show live. Our audience gets the benefit of seeing us in person, and we get the satisfcation of knowing we’ve improved their lives. Done.

Beverly: Our TV special followed us on our book tour. Very good publicity.

Ronna: It was a wonderful experience.

You managed to score Weeds writer Jenji Kohan to work with you on the TV pilot. What was that like?

You’ve published a self-help book too, I believe. What made you decide you wanted to become authors?

Ronna: Look, if Dr. Phil or Katie Price or whoever can write a book, who can’t? Between us we have five marriages. Who knows more about getting together and coming apart than we do? We have something to say, so we’re saying it. This is a (relatively) free country. No one has to listen to us. If they want to be alone for the rest of their lives, that’s up to them.

Beverly: I wanted to do a cute baby sweatshirt business.

Ronna: Or handbags. But we felt the market was saturated.

Beverly: I love babies.

Are there any British comedians you particularly enjoy watching?

What do the two of you like to do on your downtime from the show?

Ronna: Take a Xanax and a hot bath. Or swim. I love to swim. I’ve always had a terrific figure at any age.

Beverly: I like to eat something sweet, then go to a department store and try on perfume.

Ronna and Beverly: You’ll Do A Little Better Next Time will be at the Soho Theatre from May 10th-11th.

Originally published in Variety • Written by Cynthia Littleton

You can’t keep a good pair of Jewish divorcees down. “Ronna and Beverly,” a project developed as a comedy series for Showtime earlier this year by multihyphenates Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo, will get a spin on Showtime at 9:05 p.m. ET/12:05 a.m. PT (technically Tuesday on the West Coast feed) today, and again Dec. 29 at the same time on Showtime 2.

Project is based on characters that Chaffin and Denbo have honed for years onstage. Ronna, played by Chaffin, and Beverly, played by Denbo, are many-times-divorced, longtime friends who write a dating guide for Jewish singles, “You’ll Do a Little Better Next Time,” and are relentless about finding ways to promote their tome. (Think a Jewish “Ab Fab,” set in Boston.) “Weeds” maven Jenji Kohan worked with Chaffin and Denbo on the half-hour pilot produced by Lionsgate TV.

The upcoming airings are strictly an amortization move by Showtime, but Chaffin and Denbo are marshalling the power of Facebook et al. and their friends in the comedy community to spread the word about “Ronna and Beverly’s” TV bow in the hopes of generating interest at another net.

Chaffin of late has been working as a writer and thesp on CW’s “90210,” and she’s a recurring character on Showtime’s “United States of Tara.” Denbo has been cast as a regular in FX’s upcoming dramedy “Terriers.”

Originally published in The Wall Street Journal • Written by Katherine Rosman

Showtime’s “Ronna and Beverly” might be the most buzzed about television show … never actually to become a television show.

The sitcom focuses on two fifty-something yentas living in Boston and promoting their self-help guide, “You’ll Do a Little Better Next Time: A Guide to Marriage & Remarriage for Jewish Singles.” Ronna and Beverly are actually played by two women in their 30s – Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo, respectively – who created these characters about three years ago for a performance at the famous improv institution Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. They continue to perform as the duo on stage every month in L.A. and several times a year in New York. The humor is raunchy, awkward and at times, both.

In the Showtime pilot, the duo gives a lecture on dating to a group of cancer patients. Beverly asks a bald woman if chemo-induced hair-loss is a whole-body phenomenon. (The woman—like the viewers watching the pilot—is rendered speechless by the question.) Then Beverly asserts that she prefers to look as if “Gene Shalit were laying his head in my lap.” The pilot was co-written and co-produced by Jenji Kohan, the creator of “Weeds” and was directed by Paul Feig, the creator of the cult-favorite “Freaks and Geeks.”

In May 2008, Kohan, Chaffin and Denbo pitched the idea of a “Ronna and Beverly” series to Showtime executives including head of entertainment Bob Greenblatt. The cable network ordered a pilot on the spot. Then this spring, the network declined to take any of its new pilots to series, including “Ronna and Beverly.”

That seemed to be the end of that.

But thanks to Twitter and an accounting procedure used by Showtime, it wasn’t the end. Showtime told the “Ronna and Beverly” team that for “tax purposes,” it needed to air the pilot before the end of the year.

Originally, Showtime told the team behind “Ronna and Beverly” that the pilot would air in the middle of the night, on a Wednesday in December. Then, the women were pleasantly surprised to learn that Showtime had reversed course and would air the show in a good slot—on a Friday night after a repeat of an episode of the popular series, “Dexter.” But then Showtime scrapped that plan and they were unable to get a clear understanding of when their pilot would ultimately air. “They gave us the run-around,” says Kohan.

(Representatives from Showtime declined numerous requests for comment.)

Enter Carol Denbo, the proud mother of co-creator Jamie. Momma Denbo combed through Showtime listings on her Comcast DVR at her home in Massachusetts. She found the air times: December 22nd at 12:05 a.m. EST and again tonight/Wednesday morning at 12:05 a.m. EST.

In advance of the December 22 airing, Jamie Denbo and Chaffin decided to harness the power of Twitter to promote the pilot. They reached out to friends they had made during their years on the New York and L.A. comedy circuit, including “Juno” writer Diablo Cody; “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” alums Rob Riggle and Rob Courddry; and Mindy Kaling, an actress/writer/producer on “The Office.” All four tweeted about the show, enticing people (Kaling alone has over a million followers on Twitter) to watch or record the episode. On December 20 and 21, “Ronna and Beverly” became a cause célèbre on Twitter with people like “The Office” co-star Rainn Wilson (who has more than 1.7 million followers) and Time magazine contributor Joel Stein (over 1 million followers) piping in. After the show aired, Twitter as well as the IMDB page for “Ronna and Beverly” filled up with mostly positive reviews and calls for Showtime to reconsider.

Because Showtime isn’t talking, it’s impossible to know how many people tuned in to the first airing, or how many might watch (or DVR) the episode tonight. But other people involved with the production are happy that “Ronna and Beverly” is getting exposure, even posthumously. Leah Krantzler, a spokeswoman for Lionsgate Television, which produced the pilot, said by email, “We are pleased that so many fans are expressing enthusiasm for the memorable characters of ‘Ronna and Beverly’ that Jenji and her creative team brought to life in this pilot.”

Co-writer and co-producer Kohan says she hopes that the attention might lead Showtime – or another network – to rethink the idea of a “Ronna and Beverly” series. “I hope Showtime is embarrassed to not have picked this up,” she says. “Having written over 17 pilots and having shot five, I usually understand why they don’t go. I cannot understand why this didn’t go,” Kohan says.

“It pissed me off but not just because I’m creator of ‘Weeds,’ a show that has done very well for Showtime,” says Kohan, ”but because ‘Ronna and Beverly’ is a great show.”

Originally published in The Loaded Gun Boston • Written by Sam Baltrusis

If Patsy and Eddie from “AbFab” were Jewish and had thick Boston accents, they would be the politically-incorrect comedic duo from “Ronna and Beverly.”

Sketch queens Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo team up with “Weeds” creator Jenji Kohan to produce a set-in-Boston pilot for Showtime, following two-middle aged Marblehead women who publish and aggressively promote a dating guide for Jewish singles called “You’ll Do a Little Better Next Time.”

Chaffin and Denbo have been hashing out the characters in L.A. clubs and YouTube for years putting on shows like “Ronna and Beverly’s All Jew Review” and “Ronna and Beverly’s Kosher Xmas.” The fictional duo of Glickman and Ginsburg have been friends for 40 years … 38 if you count the two years they didn’t speak.

Kohan tells Variety that the “Ronna and Beverly” project for Showtime came together quickly.

“They’ve created two of the most fully realized characters I’ve ever seen,” Kohan says of Chaffin and Denbo. “It came together so easily when we all sat down to write the script.”

The pilot will start shooting in February with “Freaks and Geeks” director Paul Feig. No word if exterior scenes for the Boston-set pilot will actually be shot in the Bay State.