Kerry Washington, Kara Young, Kecia Lewis, Dominique Fishback, and Danielle Pinnock are about to step inside the wildly imaginative world that first introduced audiences to the creative genius of Whoopi Goldberg.
“The Whoopi Monologues,” the groundbreaking one-woman show written and originally performed by Goldberg, heads to Lincoln Center Theater in New York City this July with a cast that includes Washington, Young, Lewis, Fishback, and Pinnock.
“Coming to the stage… the cast of The Whoopi Monologues,” Washington wrote in an Instagram post announcing the highly anticipated production.
The announcement featured a video set to Missy Elliott’s “Pass That Dutch,” with each actress revealing which of Goldberg’s unforgettable characters she will portray in the revival of the work that helped launch one of entertainment’s most remarkable careers.
Originally titled “The Spook Show,” the production which made its debut in 1983 features five monologues built around five distinct characters created by Goldberg: Fontaine, a dope fiend with a Ph.D.; the Surfer Girl, a pregnant California Valley Girl; Lurleen, a woman with severe physical disabilities; the Blonde Girl, a young Black girl who wishes she had blonde hair; and Mai, a Jamaican woman caring for a dying elderly man.
More than four decades after its debut, the work and reason behind it remain ever relevant. At a time when Black creators, writers, and performers are increasingly struggling to get diverse projects made and secure the backing they once could to tell their stories, Goldberg’s story feels especially timely. The show exists entirely because she stopped waiting for someone else to give her a shot.
Goldberg developed the monologues out of necessity. As a young theater actress in California during the 1970s and early 1980s, working odd jobs to support herself and her young daughter, she found herself repeatedly shut out of opportunities. She struggled to find representation and was often told she was talented, but that audiences might not be ready to see someone like her in certain roles. Rather than wait for an agent, a producer, or some other industry gatekeeper to decide her future, she wrote characters no one else could have and put them onstage herself, effectively widening the world’s imagination around what a Black woman could be.
“I got tired of people in dinner theaters saying, ‘We can’t put you and a white guy together, because the folks from Texas can’t handle it.’ And ‘You are good, but our economy rides on people coming to see what they expect. And they’re not expecting you,’” Goldberg told Vanity Fair, who wrote about the then-rising fringe artist after the show generated widespread buzz and acclaim upon its debut.
She continued, “I want to do good work. I don’t think I can compromise that and live. ‘Cause if I have to shake my tits or play somebody’s fuckin’ maid for the rest of my life, it isn’t worth it. My stuff, that’s the one thing I know no amount of money can stop me from doin’. ‘Cause that’s the reason why I’m here on earth.”
Goldberg developed and premiered the show in 1983 with the Blake Street Hawkeyes troupe at 2019 Blake Street in Berkeley, California. The production quickly became a sensation, attracting the attention of Hollywood, Broadway, and acclaimed director Mike Nichols, who became one of its most influential champions.
One thing led to another, and Goldberg was starring in the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” the following year and on her way to becoming one of the few entertainers in history to achieve EGOT status.
The original title, “The Spook Show,” drew inspiration from multiple sources. It was partly a reclamation of the racial slur historically used against Black people and also partly a reference to the traveling mid-century “spook shows” that featured strange and often unsettling acts. Goldberg’s exploration of the inner lives of these distinctly different Black characters fit that tradition.
When Nichols helped move the production to Broadway, it was renamed “Whoopi Goldberg” after some producers worried audiences would find the original title confusing or controversial. A version of her performing it live was later filmed for HBO. More than 40 years since its debut, Goldberg has reimagined the work once again, this time as “The Whoopi Monologues,” and is handing it over to a new generation.
Young will play Fontaine, who opens the show, according to Playbill magazine. Washington takes on the Surfer Girl; Pinnock will portray Mai; Lewis will play Lurleen; and Fishback will step into the role of the Blonde Girl.
The production, which Whitney White is set to direct, is a celebration of the work that introduced the world to Goldberg’s voice and a reminder that one of the most successful careers in entertainment began when a young Black actress dared to see what would happen if she stopped waiting for permission to tell her own story.
Previews begin July 7 with opening night slated for July 13. Tickets on sale now.
