Dr. Ruth, All the Way

Barrington Stage Co. Pittsfield, Mass.

(413) 236-8888

“She charms, she jokes, she titillates with a voice and accent that is part German, part Jewish, part Disneyland,” said Frank Rizzo in Variety. In an“indefatigable” performance, Debra Jo Rupp creates a portrait of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, better known simply as Dr. Ruth, that’s hard not to like. But while “there’s a lot of foreplay” in Mark St. Germain’s bioplay about the diminutive sex therapist, the overall affair proves to be a “less-than-fulfilling” experience. We learn intriguing details about Dr. Ruth’s past, from her childhood in Nazi Germany to her work as a sniper in pre-independence Israel. But then the play “settles down into conventional biography, fueled by the principal conventions of the genre.” And a crucial question is left unanswered: What inspired Westheimer’s transformation, at age 52, to sex educator and media personality?

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Fortunately, even a recitation of Wikipedia’s entry on Westheimer would make for an interesting evening, said Brian Scott Lipton in TheaterMania.com. By night’s end, “it’s hard not to wallow in admiration” for the eternally upbeat figure who went from being a non-English-speaking immigrant to earning a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Rupp delivers a “first-rate imitation” of Westheimer while simultaneously “rising way above the level of mere mimicry.” Even when the script is at its weakest, Rupp’s ability to channel the straight-talking spirit of the real Dr. Ruth makes the show worthwhile.