Are five Whoopis better than one?
After nearly 19 seasons on the daytime talk show The View, some might forget that Whoopi Goldberg is a creative force to be reckoned with. The EGOT-winning actress, comedian, writer, and producer made her Broadway debut in a solo show bearing her name in 1984. The work not only holds up, it soars.
A reimagining of that production and an excerpt from its 20th-anniversary Broadway revival have been repackaged as The Whoopi Monologues, now playing Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. But instead of Goldberg onstage, five actresses step into the characters she created.
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Five women, one legacy
Director Whitney White (Liberation) has assembled a powerhouse cast. Goldberg’s trunk of characters, from Fontaine (Kara Young), a junkie with a PhD who gets high so she doesn’t get mad, to Lurleen (Kecia Lewis), a middle-aged mom in the throes of menopause who comes dangerously close to taking her own life, reverberates with a heightened theatricality born from Goldberg’s creative psyche.
White layers an unnecessary prelude, scene transitions, and dance breaks for what reason, I’m not sure. Studio Bent’s scenic design—a series of doors that offer peeks into onstage dressing rooms—and video design by Hana S. Kim also feel unnecessarily fussy when the source material is so strong.
Goldberg is adept at connecting the dots between disparate lives, whether it’s Fontaine reckoning with two years of forced silence in the Anne Frank house or Lurleen finally refusing to go unseen by a young Gap clerk.
Any of the actresses—including a humorous-to-heart-wrenching turn by Kerry Washington as a teen who takes an unwanted pregnancy into her own hands—would have been formidable in tackling the entire lineup. That prospect hovers like unfinished business, despite the polish and specificity each brings to the production.
The Whoopi Monologues offers a kaleidoscopic lens into the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Goldberg’s knack for finding humor in the darkness of addiction, reproductive care, and racism never undermines the play’s potency.
Forty years on, Goldberg still knows where the truth is hiding.
Is ‘The Whoopi Monologues’ worth seeing?
Five terrific actresses split one legendary trunk of characters among them, and mostly prove that the material stands on its own.
- Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, New York City
- Notable performers: Dominique Fishback, Kecia Lewis, Danielle Pinnock, Kerry Washington, Kara Young
- Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes, no intermission
- Performances through August 30, 2026 (Note: Kerry Washington’s final performance is August 2)
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