Review: Becoming Dr. Ruth, Gallery Players

   Gallery Players opens its 68^th season with “Becoming Dr. Ruth”, by Mark St. Germain, featuring Josie Merkle in the title role.  The single-character play is set in the posh Washington Heights, New York apartment that Dr. Ruth Westheimer shared with her third husband, David. 

    The time is 1997 -- about two months following David’s death.  Dr. Ruth is packing up her possessions and preparing to move.  She looks out, sees the audience, and invites us in.  

    She reminisces about her life and relationships as represented by various photos and nick-knacks that have accumulated in her cluttered apartment. 

     Born Karola Ruth Siegel, the only child of an orthodox Jewish family, at five years old she escapes Nazi-controlled Frankfurt, Germany when her parents send her to Switzerland via the Kinder Transport program. After the war she moved to Palestine, changed her name and joined the Jewish underground, becoming a sniper. She traveled to Europe in 1950 and eventually settled in France, where she attended school and taught psychology at the University of Paris. In 1956 she emigrated to the U.S., lived in New York and spent a decade pursuing graduate degrees in sociology and psychology.  After her third marriage and upon achieving a doctorate, she became Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the famed sex therapist whose radio broadcasts and television appearances won her millions of fans.

      The set design from Nightingale Resources is effective.  Jarod Wilson’s sound and screen projections enhance the story-telling.  

     The script follows the pattern of single-character pieces like “I’ll Eat You Last”, the chat with famed Hollywood Talent Agent Sue Mengers that became a well-known vehicle for Bette Midler. 

    While Dr. Ruth’s story is interesting, Germain’s writing is rambling, ordinary and uninspired.

   What makes this good theater is Merkle’s skill as the story teller.  Her clear, consistent delivery, timing, gestures, levels, pacing, and energy are strong enough to hold the audience’s interest for 90 minutes, making the best of what could easily become boring and tedious in the hands of a lesser actor. 

   Brava to Merkle, for her stamina, commitment and courage.