Wild and crazy gals

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 9:15 a.m.

When Rachel Williams and Louise Faye perform their 75-minute song, dance and comedy routine, their colorful antics mixed with Broadway show tunes seem more like an invigorating ride than a stage performance.

Performing Saturdays at Keys of Las Vegas on East Sahara Avenue, the two present an energetic blend of vaudeville, burlesque, musical theater and stand-up comedy, hinged together by onstage costume changes and humorous real-life anecdotes.

"We're simply not afraid to be over the top and sparkling," Williams explains to the audience in her British accent.

At 5-foot-10 1/2 inches (Faye) and 5-foot-11 inches (Williams), respectively, the women move from chorus-line kicks to exaggerated comical gestures and facial expressions, breaking into such songs as "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and "Ev'rybody Wants To Be a Cat."

The name of their act, "A Strange Duet," is taken from a song from the Broadway show "Subways Are For Sleeping."

They write their own dialogue and creatively play off of each other's differences. In one skit, both appear onstage Williams in black tights and a white tutu, and Faye in a Detroit Red Wings hockey jersey.

Alternating classical music with rap, the two perform a clumsy ballet together, ending with Faye spinning Williams, stomach-down on the floor.

Not surprisingly, both were influenced by such performers as Liza Minnelli, Danny Kaye and Shirley MacLaine."We were always told to tone it down, to blend," Faye said, recalling their musical-theater days.

"When we met, I thought, 'Oh my God, there's another person with huge facial expressions,' " Williams said. Or as she remarks in the show, "All of the sudden I saw this big mouth coming at me."

Faye said she's always been a big fan of musical theater, listening to the soundtrack of "A Chorus Line" as a child while wearing a feather boa in her family's basement in Michigan. "I was crazy for Broadway shows," she said. "Ann Reinking (a dancer and choreographer) was my favorite idol."

Nearly 3,600 miles away, Williams was establishing her dreams as a performer. Years later while performing in the show "Masquerade" in Madrid, the two would become friends.

When the show ended, the two went backpacking through Israel before Faye moved to Los Angeles to study acting and Williams went to London to perform in "Cats."

Williams continued performing in musical theater while Faye continued dancing. Eventually they came up with an idea for their own show.

"Over the course of all the different shows and keeping in touch, it became apparent that we were tired of doing other people's material," Faye said.

"We were doing a lot of complaining," Williams said. "We felt we were too big for the shows we were in."

When they decided four years ago to put together their own show, they selected their favorite pieces from other shows, changed some of the lyrics to reflect their story and put together some dance numbers to create something they would like to see in a show.

"We weren't seeing top hat and tails," Williams said. "Nobody was doing that anymore."

Their act consisted mainly of musical theater. As they began getting gigs in comedy clubs, it became more comedic. "It was stand up, stand up, stand up, then us," Williams said, "in feathers."

They've performed at such Los Angeles-area comedy clubs as the Comedy Store and L.A. Comedy Cabaret.

They created their act by videotaping each other and making faces while standing before bathroom mirrors. Eventually they rented a dance studio and pieced it all together.

"One of my main inspirations was 'The Muppet Show' because it was (crazy)," Williams said. "They did all those crazy jokes, singing and dancing. We're doing our version of 'The Muppet Show.' "

Did they know that together they were funny?

"Well we always made each other laugh," Williams said.

"It was very scary in the beginning," Faye said. "We didn't know how people were going to respond to us."

But as Bette Midler and Andy Kaufman before them, they decided to do their own thing.

"Now we're not trying to second-guess the market," Faye said. "We just want to stick to what's true to us and see if we can build a following. What we really want is to do a TV variety show, 1970s-style song-and-dance show."

Until that happens, they would like to open for a Las Vegas headliner (Faye resides here; Williams lives in Los Angeles).

Similar to Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett at Carnegie Hall, and Sonny and Cher during their television heydey, the two, both 33 years old, are a perfect match onstage.

At the end of the show you're left wondering where they'd be without one another.

"You know, Rachel, some people say we're crazy the way we are," Faye said to Williams during the show.

"What do we care?" Williams replied. "We've got us."