Inviting us into the living room of the New York City apartment she’s vacating after her third husband’s death, Dr. Ruth Westheimer revels in the chance to tell her life story onstage. Only a few intermittent calls make her pause as she recalls her past, starting with losing her German family and home as the Kindertransport sends her to a hard childhood in a Swiss orphanage. Only at the end of her tale to date will a conclusion come to her sad wondering about those closest to her whom she left behind.
Once she’s established accent, spunky attitude, and close approximation of Ruth’s looks, Susan Greenhill totally inhabits the woman best known for becoming a “Sexually Speaking” media star and writer. Playwright Mark St. Germain emphasizes her pursuit of lifelong learning, love of teaching, and senses of humor and joy in performing. Yes, whether she declares so or not -- performing.
Director Kate Alexander’s blocking seems to keep Ruth in action throughout, when she’s actually packing up items that stir memories of the things she tells us about. After accounts of being an Israeli Army sniper come those of overcoming hurtles to traveling, getting an education, having her own sexual and marital experiences, raising two children, getting ahead professionally.
Most of the time, Ruth obviously follows a script, though Greenhill puts abundant heart into interpreting it. My feelings about Dr. Ruth’s achievements may be colored by those that find her pretty lucky for a woman of her time to have benefited by the era’s fascination with smart and assertive foreign females along with openness about sex. She had extraordinary educational opportunities, especially scholarships, open to her -- sometimes as a result of what she’d suffered due to Nazism!
Maybe because the real Dr. Ruth projected the image of an almost terminally cutesy lady specializing in a once-hush-hush subject, St. Germain constantly brings her back to the Holocaust and dissolution of her family so she can simply be taken seriously as a person. Greenhill under Alexander’s direction emphasizes Westheimer’s lively outlook and determination to survive rather than just to be witty and entertaining.
But entertaining Greenhill is in Becoming Dr. Ruth, helped by a competent technical staff, well-chosen props and authentic projected photos.
