(Sylviane Gold’s article appeared in The New York Times, 8/21; via Pam Green.)

Five countries, three husbands, four names. The one most people know her by, Dr. Ruth, has become synonymous with frank talk about sex, but in “Becoming Dr. Ruth,” the first-rate Mark St. Germain play now at Penguin Rep in Stony Point, sex is perhaps the least scintillating of the subjects under discussion. This 90-minute, one-woman show, set in 1997, finds our heroine, born Karola Ruth Siegel in 1928, preparing to move from the New York apartment she has shared with Fred Westheimer for 36 years. 

As she dispenses anecdotes, advice and opinions, “Becoming Dr. Ruth” develops into more than just another celebrity memoir. It’s a family saga, a Holocaust drama and an exploration of 20th-century Jewish identity. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz6b853CgtE

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