Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington and the Stars of The Whoopi Monologues on Reimagining the Solo Show
The stars of the Lincoln Center Theater production celebrate opening night
What to Know
- The Whoopi Monologues, a five-person ensemble reimagining of Whoopi Goldberg’s 1984 solo show, opened July 13
- The production stars Kerry Washington, Kara Young, Dominique Fishback, Kecia Lewis and Danielle Pinnock
- The show plays through August 30 at at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
Whoopi Goldberg’s 1984 solo show has been reimagined as a five-person ensemble piece entitled The Whoopi Monologues, which is being staged at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Directed by Whitney White, the show opened on July 13 and features a dynamic quintet of performers: Kerry Washington, Kara Young, Dominique Fishback, Kecia Lewis and Danielle Pinnock. Broadway.com caught up with the stars, along with Goldberg herself, on opening night.
For several members of the cast, stepping into The Whoopi Monologues is the culmination of years of admiration for Goldberg's work. “I love Whoopi, I love this material. This show changed my life as a little girl when my parents—God bless them—let me watch it on HBO,” says Washington. “It really changed me. It changed my idea of what was possible with theater, the power of theater, how theater can transform people’s hearts and minds. I’ve wanted to take this on for a really long time and I’ve wanted to do it with a community of women. Nobody is Whoopi, but five of us can band together to try to do what she did.”
Lewis also traces her connection back to seeing the original piece. “I saw the original show when I was 19 years old. [It] redefined what I could do and what was possible for me,” recalls Lewis. “She wasn’t Whoopi yet, she was this lady who had written a work for herself, because she wasn’t working like she felt she should be. It changed everything.”
Pinnock, meanwhile, sees the production as a full-circle moment: “I have these memories of coming to the Lincoln Center Library as a 14 year old and watching Whoopi’s play. I saw [The] Color Purple, and I was like ‘Who is that?’ and my mom said, ‘That’s Whoopi Goldberg.’ I’m a Black Matilda and so I was like, ‘I need to learn every single thing about this woman.'”
While the cast brought fresh life to the material, Goldberg stayed out of the way. “I didn’t want to impose what it was onto what it is. I wanted it to belong to them," the EGOT winner says. "I said, ‘OK! You'll do it, and I’ll come see it.’ So they’re doing it and I have come to see it, and I’m very happy.”
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