From Stage To Screen In Her New Movie, Lisa Kudrow Recreates The Character She’s Played In The Theater For Years

The waitress reacted as if she had just seen a friend. Then, realizing her error, she reacted as if she had just seen a “Friend.”

“Hi, it’s you, isn’t it?” she said when she first approached the table in a trendy Beverly Hills restaurant. “No, wait, it’s not you. It’s YOU, right? Am I right? You’re who I think you are, aren’t you?”

Although supposedly real life, the incident played like a scene from the sitcom “Mad About You,” in which Lisa Kudrow has a recurring role as a ditzy waitress named Ursula. Only this time, Kudrow is the bewildered customer.

Not wanting the waitress to feel awkward, though, Kudrow tells a story about once making the same mistake with Meg Ryan, whom she did not know. But Ryan’s face is so familiar that Kudrow said she thought at first it was an old friend.

The mistaken identity in the restaurant is understandable; Kudrow’s face is becoming familiar to the public, not only for her “Mad About You” role but, more important, for playing Phoebe on the megahit “Friends.” Now, with the opening of her new film comedy, “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” even movie fans will start to recognize her.

Kudrow and Mira Sorvino, hot off her Oscar-winning role in “Mighty Aphrodite,” play two … how should we say this without being insulting … young women who are not very ambitious, enjoy hanging out in nightclubs, and are short in both skirt and brains.

Upon learning from a former classmate (Janeane Garofalo) that their 10th high school reunion is approaching, they try desperately to transform themselves, in the space of two weeks, into what appear to be bright, upwardly mobile business executives with great boyfriends.

Although Sorvino was new to the Romy character when she read the script, Kudrow and the role of Michele are old and dear friends.

She has been portraying this character, off and on, for more than a decade, having originated the part when it was conceived as a role in a stage play in a small theater in Los Angeles. Kudrow was a member of the Groundlings improv troupe when former member Robin Schiff wrote the play.

Here’s the catch: The play was called “Ladies’ Room” and took place entirely in the restroom of a trendy Mexican restaurant during happy hour. The focus was supposed to be on a group of female business types, but a seven-minute sketch with Romy and Michele brought the house down night after night.

Aaron Spelling was an original backer of the play, but eventually producer Barry Kemp (creator of the TV shows “Coach” and “Newhart”) bought the rights and financed a new production in San Francisco.

At this point, Disney’s Touchstone showed an interest in developing the play into a sitcom or movie. But Disney didn’t want the whole play; studio executives recognized immediately that Romy and Michele were the key.

“I preferred the idea of a movie over a sitcom because I could see doing six stories around these girls but not 50,” said Kemp, who executive-produced the film.

Still, it took several years for Schiff to turn her play into a movie script and, in the meantime, Kudrow got famous. Lucky for her.

“I was talking to them about playing the part in the movie, but there was a problem because they didn’t think I had the visibility to be in the movie,” Kudrow said. “Even with ‘Mad About You,’ they still didn’t think I was well-known enough.

“Luckily, it took so long to get made that ‘Friends’ had taken off by then, and I got the part.”

The actress who played Romy on stage was Christie Melor, and she did not make the cut.

“For me, it was always Lisa’s part,” Kemp said. “She was perfect for the role, and the fact that she’s now famous on ‘Friends’ is certainly a bonus for the movie.

“She’s really a remarkable comedic actress. She does something that very few other actresses do, and that is to find the inner truth of her character. Not all of what she does is written in the script. She understands her character and brings a depth to the role that wasn’t there on the page. It’s very exciting to watch.”

Kudrow, 33, is a Valley girl. There, we’ve said it. We had to, because she was raised in Tarzana, Calif., and that would make her a Valley girl. But she defied the stereotype.

The daughter of a research scientist who devoted his life to the study of headaches, and the sister of a neurologist, Kudrow was inspired to study hard and matriculate at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., as a biology major.

She said she intended to join her father in research after graduation, but a funny thing happened on the way to the lab.

“Despite going to Vassar and despite contemplating going to graduate school at Oxford University to study evolutionary biology, I really wanted to be an actress,” she said without a hint of irony.

“I had been in school plays and I loved it. I had thought for a while that I wanted to be a scientist, but apparently I didn’t.”

At the end of that summer after college graduation, already assisting her father in the lab, she made the decision to take a shot at show business. She made the announcement at a party for her brother’s best friend, Jon Lovitz, who had just been named to the cast of “Saturday Night Live.”

She told Lovitz of her plans, and he advised her to join the Groundlings. A year later, she got the part in the play and that led to guest appearances on episodic TV shows.

One of those guest shots was on “Mad About You,” and show creator Danny Jacobson remembered her when he was casting Ursula, who was supposed to be a one-episode character.

Kudrow did such a good job - she asked Paul Reiser if he wanted cheese on that cheeseburger - that Jacobson asked her back for five more episodes.

That led to what she considered her big break: She won the role of Roz on a new sitcom called “Frasier.” She got the job Monday and was fired Thursday.

“They said it just wasn’t working and that there was no chemistry between Kelsey and me,” she said. “I was absolutely devastated. I had gone from the best day of my life to the worst in the same week.”

But her fortunes turned around quickly; a few months later, she met her future husband, French-born advertising executive Michel Stern, and then got the “Friends” gig.

“I just love the show and the character,” said Kudrow, who has completed the third season of a six-season commitment.