BECOMING DR. RUTH at the Westside Theater/Upstairs

The eye follows movement, and except for the deepest emotional moments, Dr. Ruth (Debra Jo Rupp of TV’S The 70’s Show, Friends, and film BIG with Tom Hanks) the tiny heroine stays in motion as she bustles about the stage of The Westside Theater doing last-minute packing. All the while she tells her amazing journey from being orphaned by the Nazis, to her training as a Haganah sniper in pre-independence Palestine, to studying with Piaget in Paris, marrying three husband, having two children (raising one of them as a single parent) getting her Ph. D., to her frank and often hilarious talk show, inviting callers to ask her about sex, and authoring 36 books, including Sex for Dummies.

Playwright, Mark St. Germain who also wrote Freud’s Last Session that was so wildly successful it kept coming back for final runs, let Dr. Ruth do what she does best: TALK. She addresses the audience directly, in fact, she welcomes you. When her children call, she tells them that she has company, meaning all of you who are lucky enough to attend. She describes herself as a Yekke, a Jew of German-speaking origin who covers feelings with a smile. Her father looked back and smiled at her as he was being taken away to a Nazi work camp. Get tickets and You’ll “smile even while your heart is breaking,” as the old song goes.

For tickets and info: http://www.becomingdoctorruth.com/