Chicago Sun-Times Review: ‘The First Lady of Television’
The play puts Gertrude Berg front and center in a period piece embedded with a razor’s edge of contemporary urgency and spliced through with comedy.
by Catey Sullivan
Before there was “I Love Lucy” there was “The Goldbergs,” starring, written and produced by Gertrude Berg, who basically created the sitcom genre and set the template for everything from “I Love Lucy” to “All in the Family” to “Modern Family.”
Now having its world premiere at Skokie’s Northlight Theatre, James Sherman’s “The First Lady of Television,” puts Berg front and center in a period piece embedded with a razor’s edge of contemporary urgency and spliced through with comedy.
Set in 1950 during a single rehearsal for “The Goldbergs,” Sherman dives into the wanton destruction of Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s attempt to purge the U.S. of communists — or rather, anyone his House Committee on Un-American Activities accused of being one.
Directed by BJ Jones, “First Lady“ is hilarious, tragic and alarming. It’s also a glorious spotlight for actor Cindy Gold, who plays Gertrude Berg and her sitcom alter-ego, Molly Goldberg. The latter is the kind matriarch of “The Goldbergs,” the fictional Bronx immigrant family at the heart of the television show (which started in 1929 as a radio show of the same name). The former is similar but with an indomitable, do-not-try-me authority that can shut down fools with a single look…
Sherman — a founding member of the Playwrights Ensemble at the late, great Victory Gardens Theater — has structured the 75-minute drama beautifully, although it’s about 15 minutes shy of a fully satisfying theatrical outing.
The story is bookended by a pair of monologues, first from Molly and the last from Gertrude. Molly’s opener is all sunny American idealism, wrapped in a Sanka commercial. In the closer, Gertrude goes rogue, scrapping the advertiser-dictated script and going to a place of ruthless defiance that’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up…
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