In the recording "room" with Libby Lenkinski, JT Rogers, and Aziz Abu Sarah for our OSLO episode.

Dear Family & Friends,

     It has finally arrived: Season 2 of Why We Theater officially launched yesterday. (I’m thrilled to be able to tell you it’s here after so many months of teasing it.) With the new season, we have a new slogan: Why We Theater — digging into the onstage works we love to make the offstage change we need. I decided to premiere with my episode on the Tony Award-winning Best Play Oslo & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. This was either a brilliant or terrible idea. (As my friend Sam said, either way it’s bold. Which feels right.) By my watch, it is the longest episode of the season. But it's not about time stamp, it's about pacing. The conversation  is riveting and tragic and hopeful. It is personal and political.

     In addition to J.T. Rogers, Oslo’s playwright, I managed to find two brave, empathetic, ridiculously smart experts to join us: Libby Lenkinski, a woman of Israeli descent and VP at the New Israel Fund, and Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian born in East Jerusalem who once threw stones at the IDF and now is a professional peace-builder, having worked in Afghanistan, Columbia, and, of course, Israel. We're not trying to "solve" the conflict in one podcast. This episode is not about a two-state solution, or one-state solution. This is about the approach to peace, Libby and Aziz's stories experiences, and how we, as outsiders, can help ease the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians right now.

    I hope you will listen. If you love the show, please subscribe/follow (it's free!), rate us, and write a review. (If you hate us… don’t worry about it.) Please recommend it to a friend, post on your socials, teach it in your classrooms, and tell me what you think. The best part about Season 1 was the post-episode conversations I had with listeners who further opened my mind. That’s the point. We will only find answers if we keep asking questions and push one another. Find Why We Theater on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

     I have episodes coming up about Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews’ musical Witness Uganda (which wowed audiences Off-Broadway and in L.A.); Domenica Feraud’s play Rinse, Repeat (which extended at Signature Off-Broadway); Nadira Simone’s The Killing of Kings (a brand new work I saw on Zoom that hooked me); Kit Yan and Melissa Li’s musical Interstate (which sold out and created a huge stir at NYMF 2018); and more. (Also, the episodes get shorter.)

     Every other Thursday, I’ll release one of these panel-discussion episodes. (If you can’t wait that long, download the BPN app and listen on Wednesdays.) In off weeks, I’ll drop mini episodes.

     The podcast isn’t the only outlet that keeps me busy. I’ve been moderating more and more, starting with an in-person talkback last month with Tony-nominated playwright Rajiv Joseph about his new play Letters of Suresh at Second Stage. (You may remember my virtual preview talk with him and director May Adrales last spring.) I hit the big stage at the 92Y to lead the post-screening Talk about the Dear Evan Hansen movie. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, whether you’ve seen the show or not, the discussion with writer Steven Levenson, director Stephen Chbosky, and stars Ben Platt and Amandla Stenberg is worth the watch. (It may also be worth watching just to see my reaction to an auditorium of over 700 people give a standing ovation. Even though it wasn’t for me, feeling that love and appreciation was incredible. I forgot that feeling from my performing days.) Watch it here.

     On the flip side, I had an intimate chat with THEE Sutton Foster about her new memoir Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life. I got an email at 9am Friday saying “Sutton was wondering” if I could moderate at noon. When Sutton Foster asks for you, you read that book as fast as you can (well, a few chapters of it) and say yes. If my 12-year-old Thoroughly-Modern-Millie-enamored self knew that, one day, Sutton Foster would ask for me to lead her book talk… I would have died. And then I wouldn’t have been here to do the talk! She dialed in from her dressing room in London, where she just finished her reprise run as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. She was so unabashedly herself. She was goofy and vulnerable; she talked about her mom, being a mom, her divorce, The Drowsy Chaperone, and her thoughts on Younger’s ending. Watch it below.

     There are (hopefully) more exciting things to tell you soon. For now—as I write again from 30,000 feet—I feel supremely lucky to be doing what I love to do, to choose exactly what I want to work on, to decide what people I work with, and it’s all because you are behind me. Thank you for listening, watching, and reading. Now go see a show! Love and all that jazz, Ruthie

Calendar - Upcoming New York Openings and Re-Openings

BROADWAY

Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations (October 16)

The Lehman Trilogy (Now in previews)

Dana H (Now in previews)

The Phantom of the Opera (October 22)

Previews: Mrs. Doubtfire (October 21), Diana (November 2), Flying Over Sunset (November 11)

OFF-BROADWAY

Nollywood Dreams by Jocelyn Bioh

MCC Theater

Begins October 21; Opens November 11; Closes November 28

The Fever

Minetta Lane Theatre

Begins October 8; Closes October 24

Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith

Signature Theatre Center

Begins October 12; Closes November 14

Morning Sun starring Edie Falco, Blair Brown, and Marin Ireland

Manhattan Theatre Club

Begins October 12; Opens November 3

The Visitor a new musical by Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey, and Kwame Kwei-Armah

The Public Theater

Begins October 14; Closes November 28

TREVOR The Musical

Stage 42

Begins October 25; Closes November 10

Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord directed by Chay Yew

New York Theatre Workshop

Begins October 25; Opens November 4; Closes November 21

Recommendations: 

*If these recommendations inspire you to check out something new, I’d love to know! Tag your post about it with #ruthierecommends.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical will be my top recommendation until the day I die—or it closes. I returned for its re-opening September 24 and it is still explosive and sexy and gorgeous. But below are recs for new shows—either that I hadn’t seen before the pandemic or that have now officially opened—and things beyond shows.

1. Beyond Babel. I have, quite simply, never seen anything like this. I have thought about this show at least once a day since I saw it 12 days ago. Created by Keone & Mari Madrid (who also choreograph) and Hideaway Circus, Beyond Babel is a full-length contemporary hip-hop dance theatre piece with a Romeo & Juliet-esque narrative at its hart. I can still visualize moments in the show and its stops me in my tracks. Keone, Mari, and the full company dance to a pristinely curated playlist and levitate in lighting by Jeff Croiter. I’ve been keeping an eye on the Madrids for a little (you might recognize them from So You Think You Can Dance). I couldn’t have expected this. They prove dancing is acting. It closes November 21. Go. Now.

2. Six. The first new musical to officially open on Broadway is exactly the blast-and-a-half we need. I’ve loved the studio album for years; the musical homages and lyrics are so clever. I’m a sucker for anything to do with Henry VIII and his wives. The six queens’ voices are out of control. This was the last Broadway show I saw before the shutdown in 2020. I had a ton of fun, but it felt like watching the album live. It still is, but this time around the book (not just the score) hit me as subversively smart. A brilliant commentary on female empowerment and feminism. The feminine power in that building was so palpable it could light up Monstropolis—and that, in and of itself, is worth going to feel.

3. Thoughts of a Colored Man. I know I love a show when there is a line that hits me in my core and forces me to “mmmmm.” That happened multiple times at Thoughts of a Colored Man. Keenan Scott II’s writing in this new play (his Broadway debut) is poetic and profound. I never felt the impulse to wallpaper an entire script on my walls, until now. The show follows seven Black men in Brooklyn; each of them represents a thought, an emotion. Every actor is strong. Their stories play out in vignettes—a show don’t tell version of “we are not a monolith.”

4. Sanctuary City. If great writing is your priority when you see a play, go Off-Broadway to Sanctuary City by Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok. She employs a singular writing device like I’ve never seen, and it really works to dissect the desperation of DREAMERS and the dire state of immigration in the U.S.

5. Lackawanna Blues. I'm less inclined to enjoy solo shows these days, but Ruben Santiago-Hudson is extraordinary as he animates all the characters of his childhood growing up with Nanny. An old-school woman of strong stock, Nanny owned multiple buildings and cared for her entire community. She didn't give charity, but she gave a chance to the overlooked. Ruben wears his heart on his sleeve as he practically sings the blues for his surrogate mother.

6. Malibu Rising. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a mad genius. I tore through her Daisy Jones & The Six in three days. I devoured Malibu Rising, her latest, in two. She has the uncanny ability to go deep with her characters yet propel forward in plot at breakneck speed. This novel also stems from the music industry, jumping from the 1970s to the 1990s to unravel the family drama of fictional rockstar Mick Riva (a Mick Jagger type) and his four children. Captivating, original, and like a forest on fire.

7. 544 Days. The podcast from Gimlet, Crooked Media, and A24 chronicles the 2014-2016 detention of Jason Rezaian, the Iranian correspondent for The Washington Post. Jason and his wife Yegi were arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in July 2014. Jason hosts the podcast, describing their arrest, his weeks upon weeks in solitary, and their visits once Yegi got out. But what’s fascinating is how the journalist uses interviews with his mother, brother, Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Jason's bosses at The Post, and more to zoom out and paint of picture of the moving pieces of the negotiation for his release. For my fellow Madam Secretary fans out there, this is for you. Only on Spotify.

My Philosophy

I believe in art's power to create change. Art—particularly theatre—can help us reflect, determine, and, sometimes, change our beliefs. I hope that you all continue to engage with the storytelling and art around you—wherever you are and whatever level—and that you entertain different points of view. Advocate for your principles while always leaving room to hear others and evolve. Let's stay engaged, thoughtful, and active. 

As always, if you need show recommendations or if you have theatre questions, please get in touch! I LOVE to answer. Keep tabs on RuthieFierberg.com. 

Thank you for your enduring support.