‘The Whoopi Monologues’ Shows How an American Original First Rose To Prominence

It’s easy to forget, if you’re old enough to remember, that before Whoopi Goldberg was a morning television personality or an Oscar-winning actress, she was a stage sensation. More than 40 years ago, the late, great Mike Nichols caught “The Spook Show,” her one-woman collection of different character monologues, and was so impressed that he secured a spot on Broadway. As “Whoopi Goldberg,” the piece earned wild acclaim and launched a multi-decade career.Now it has been reimagined as “The Whoopi Monologues,” a showcase for five performers helmed by red-hot director Whitney White, whose recent and upcoming projects include the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Liberation” and, this fall, the Broadway premiere of Jocelyn Bioh’s acclaimed “School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play.”The new “Monologues” is being staged at an off-Broadway venue, Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse, but as you might expect, Ms. White was able to recruit a glittering ensemble cast. Kerry Washington, best known for her work in television and film but also a theater veteran, is on hand, as is Kara Young, one of the most gifted and celebrated performers of her generation, who last year became the first black woman to win two consecutive Tonys, having been nominated four times in a row.They’re joined by Kecia Lewis, also a Tony winner, for “Hell’s Kitchen”; Danielle Pinnock, another stage and screen vet whose comedic flair is known to viewers of CBS’s “Ghosts,” not to be confused with “Ghost,” which won Whoopi Goldberg a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1991; and Dominique Fishback, who has reaped praise in movies such as “Judas and the Black Messiah” and TV series such as “Swarm.”Ms. Young sets a high bar with the first monologue, playing a woman named Fontaine, who at first blush seems like a crazed junkie, shouting expletive-laden appeals and observations. But as she describes finagling a trip to Amsterdam and a visit to the Anne Frank House, a quirky profundity seeps in that reminds us that, whatever your take on her political musings on “The View,” Ms. Goldberg was, and remains, a writer capable of zany wit and substantial insight.We later meet Blonde Girl, a black youth who dreams of looking more like Barbie, played by an exuberant Ms. Fishback; Jamaican Lady, a native of that island country who lands herself a wealthy American, given great warmth and exquisite timing by Ms. Pinnock; and Surfer Girl, whose superficial frivolity ends up taking a back seat in a harrowing journey, which Ms. Washington charts with an easy sensitivity.Under Ms. White’s guidance, the actresses all juggle the humor and pathos their characters demand with dexterity and energy, sometimes reaching out directly to the audience, who at a recent preview not only drank in the attention but voiced their enthusiastic approval.“The Whoopi Monologues” concludes with a funny, ultimately poignant discourse from one Lurleen, who is grappling with menopause and doesn’t mind detailing her challenges in sometimes graphic terms. Ms. Lewis lends fierce authority to the segment, which by turns offers a baby boomer’s wistful reflection, a feminist manifesto and, in the end, a template for survival.“Do you participate on your knees or do you participate standing straight up in the way that’s most comfortable for you?” Lurleen asks, rhetorically. More than four decades after its original incarnation premiered, this fresh take on Ms. Goldberg’s breakthrough work decidedly stands up.

‘The Whoopi Monologues’ Shows How an American Original First Rose To Prominence

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