Review: The Whoopi Monologues Shines, Even Without Whoopi Goldberg

One could see Lincoln Center Theater’s production of The Whoopi Monologues as an experiment. Can Whoopi Goldberg’s anthology of solo acts, which helped catapult her to stardom after she performed them to great acclaim on Broadway in 1984, still work without Goldberg herself bringing them to life? Based on the results onstage in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, the answer is a qualified but mostly strong “yes.”

To see Goldberg’s performance back in ’84—which is available to stream on HBO Max as Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway—is to be reminded of the shapeshifting virtuosity of which she is capable as a performer. Based on the 20th-anniversary Broadway revival (also filmed for HBO as Whoopi Goldberg: Back to Broadway) in 2004, Goldberg was already starting to lose some of that grip, so it was probably best for her to cede performance duties to others this time around. Instead of casting one chameleonic performer, however, director Whitney White has chosen to distribute the monologues among a cast of five.

At the very least, this multi-actor approach allows The Whoopi Monologues to become a showcase of some of the finest Black talent across generations. Kara Young kicks off the show as Fontaine, the self-described “dope fiend” with a Ph.D. in literature, who steals her way onto a flight to Amsterdam and has a humbling experience at the Anne Frank House. Dominique Fishback follows as a young girl who yearns to be white and blonde, wearing a T-shirt over her head as her own way of manifestation.

Danielle Pinnock plays a Jamaican woman who recalls her fling with a man in his 90s who brings her to the United States. Kerry Washington takes on the role of a teenager in Southern California who finds no one, including her own mother, willing to help her when she gets pregnant after a one-night stand. And Kecia Lewis ends the show as Lurleen, a middle-aged woman who grapples with the challenges of aging, menopause, and generational shifts in sexuality, in ways that range from nostalgic and wryly observant to rueful and nearly tragic. White reinforces the concept of all these characters flowing from Goldberg’s mind by bringing all five cast members together onstage between and sometimes during monologues.

A character called “Handicapped Lady,” who had closed out both previous Broadway productions, has been cut for this revival, perhaps a wise choice given modern tastes regarding able-bodied performers portraying people with disabilities. Beyond that omission, though, Goldberg hasn’t updated the material to speak directly to contemporary times. On the one hand, that refusal to tweak these monologues risks making The Whoopi Monologues seem like little more than a museum piece. It’s a bit jarring, for instance, to hear the Blonde Girl refer to The Love Boat and Lurleen discuss her impressions of Sex and the City as if they were recent cultural phenomena.

But dated cultural references aside, no doubt many of the broader social issues Goldberg touches on—whiteness being held up as the cosmetic ideal in media, the stigma of teen pregnancy, the lack of concrete knowledge about female sexuality compared to male—persist despite progress made in the intervening decades. More crucially, by subtracting the spectacle of Goldberg playing all these characters, this revival allows us to appreciate more fully the brilliance of her writing: the acute quality of her observations, the sharpness of her social critiques, the bold oscillations between comedy and tragedy.

There’s certainly nothing musty about these performances. Young, Fishback, and Pinnock show some solid improvisational skills in the (light) audience interactions built into their monologues. The exaggerated thickness of Washington’s Valley Girl accent merely allows for the harrowing nature of her subsequent self-abortion to detonate with tragic force. And Lewis imbues her lengthy monologue with hearty warmth, resigned melancholy, and enough hard-won resolve that I was willing to overlook the few times she called for lines at the preview performance I attended.

It’s also refreshing to see these monologues actually staged and directed. The scenic design team Studio Bent has configured the back of the Mitzi E. Newhouse stage as a dressing room, covered by five doors, with video designer Hana S. Kim giving us a peek behind them at the beginning. Qween Jean has chosen the perfect costume for each character, with Nikiya Mathis similarly on-point with her hair and wig designs. Above all, Cha See’s lighting design seems especially attuned to the emotional oscillations within each monologue.

This sterling revival demonstrates that, with the right actors and creative talent, The Whoopi Monologues is strong enough to make an impact without its namesake star. You won’t miss seeing Whoopi Goldberg onstage, because if anything, her gifts as a writer, observer, and social critic shine even brighter this time around.