NEW YORK — Four decades ago, Whoopi Goldberg announced herself as a transcendent entertainer, embarked on her circuitous EGOT path and crossed off the G on that awards quest. The Grammy-winning work: a recording of her virtuosic Broadway debut, in which the budding comic foregrounded the marginalized with a slew of character-hopping monologues.
That show’s endurance is reiterated in the Lincoln Center Theater’s inspired off-Broadway revival, billed as “The Whoopi Monologues” and turned into a five-actor piece. The sterling thespians: “Scandal” star Kerry Washington, “Judas and the Black Messiah” standout Dominique Fishback, “Ghosts” scene-stealer Danielle Pinnock and Tony winners Kara Young and Kecia Lewis.
Director Whitney White oversees a shrewd production that finds organic moments to utilize the full ensemble (mostly during the show’s peppy interludes). But this is mostly a one-woman-at-a-time showcase, and Young slams a leadoff homer as the philosophizing junkie Fontaine. Young would be entrancing enough if the performance were just a mash-up of manic mannerisms — tilted head, hunched shoulders, rolled eyes. Amid the scatterbrained hilarity, however, Young also conveys profound pathos as her character recalls a sobering trip to the Anne Frank House.
Fishback next gets to relay a sweet tale of self-love as the Blonde Girl, a Black child discovering the fallacy of mainstream beauty standards. (I saw Kai Heath, Fishback’s excellent understudy.) Pinnock is a riot as the Jamaican Lady, who spins an amusing — if overlong — yarn about arriving stateside to care for an older gentleman. As Lurleen, Lewis caps the show with a soulful reflection on womanhood and gendered double standards.
Then there’s Washington, who will conclude her stint Sunday and pass the torch to Jurnee Smollett for the rest of the run. As the uptalking Surfer Girl, Washington walks the tightrope between rib-tickling caricature and gut-punching cautionary tale when this seemingly frivolous confessional turns tragic.
Sure, “The Whoopi Monologues” does lose the thrill of watching its playwright transform from character to character, as Goldberg did. But what better way to illustrate Goldberg’s influence than to take this kaleidoscopic commentary on the Black female experience and reimagine it for a host of generation-spanning stars?
Through Aug. 30 at Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th St., New York. About 1 hour 40 minutes. lct.org.
Here’s a review of two more productions now on off-Broadway stages:
‘Birthright’
It speaks to various factors — the crackle of Jonathan Spector’s dialogue, the crispness of Teddy Bergman’s direction, the relief of a second intermission — that the three-plus hours of “Birthright” mostly breeze by at the MCC Theater. That’s no small feat for a decades-spanning study of how the bonds among six Jewish friends, forever connected by a Birthright trip to Israel, fluctuate and fracture in the face of sociopolitical flash points.
We meet these millennials in 2006, when they reunite in Northern Virginia days removed from the inciting voyage, its identity-shaping influence still percolating. Spector checks back in on these Washingtonians a decade later, as a certain election looms and our 30-something characters are codifying their belief systems.
By the time we arrive in 2024 for the third act, we can imagine what’s coming: a friendship-testing discourse on Israel’s war in Gaza, anti-Zionism and the meaning of the word “genocide” (with an astute indictment of how smartphones warp such debates tacked on, for good measure).
Spector has carefully curated his swath of perspectives. Eli Gelb plays Noah, a journalist with a soft spot for intellectual buzzwords and a crush on the brash politico Chaya (played by Zoë Winters). Hale Appleman’s free spirit Lev is the magnetic center of the group, while Nate Mann’s rocker Emerson starts off with the flimsiest spirituality. Molly Ranson portrays Alona, a Yale student ever more bonded to her Israeli roots, who increasingly clashes with the human powder keg Izzy (a sensational Molly Bernard).
The naturalistic, overlapping dialogue that Spector wielded in the Tony-winning “Eureka Day” is back in full force here — a largely effective choice that does make the occasional on-the-nose pontification all the more jarring. For the most part, though, “Birthright” is less interested in its political talking points than the people rattling them off. Good. For the world-premiere play’s thorny debates to draw blood, after all, we must first believe that these are humans with beating hearts.
Through Aug. 23 at MCC Theater, 511 West 52nd St., New York. About 3 hours 20 minutes. mcctheater.org.
‘Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody’
Now let’s pivot to our underdog tale. What are the odds of success, after all, for a ripped-from-the-zeitgeist parody musical, fast-tracked onstage in a few short months? Better than the chances of a Canadian team lifting the Stanley Cup, it turns out. (For the hockey neophytes: This hasn’t happened in decades.)
Featuring a book, music and lyrics by Dylan MarcAurele, “Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody” — now onstage at the intimate Culture Club — is a scrappy good time. Alan Kliffer directed the delirious romp, which reimagines the saucy hockey romance and turns the clandestine love story of Canadian star Shane Hollander (played here by Jimin Moon) and Russian renegade Ilya Rozanov (Jay Armstrong Johnson) into a musical theater send-up.
That means we get clever riffs on “Anything Goes,” “Waitress” and “Hamilton” on top of the inevitable double entendre lyrics, outlandish sex scenes, and gags about lustful housewives and bodacious backsides. Plus, you might even star in a show that recruits an audience member to portray closeted heartthrob Scott Hunter at every performance. And MarcAurele’s songs — particularly the ditty of an opening number — are far catchier than they have any right being. For all its musical irreverence, the “Heated Rivalry” parody turns out to be its own kind of power play.
Through Nov. 1 at the Culture Club, 530 West 27th St., New York. About 1 hour 30 minutes. heatedrivalryparody.com.
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