L ifestyles /C ulture
Act II Playhouse Puts ‘Dr. Ruth’ on Stage
T H EATER
SELAH MAYA ZIGHELBOIM | JE STAFF
HOLOCAUST ORPHAN.

Israeli sniper. Sex guru.

There aren’t a lot of people
who can be described with that
particular trifecta, but one who
can is Ruth Westheimer, the
pop culture icon more com-
monly known as Dr. Ruth.

Her life story, told in
Becoming Dr. Ruth, is now on
stage at Act II Playhouse in
Ambler, where it will continue
its run until Feb. 17. The Feb. 14
show is the community part-
ner night, when a portion of
ticket sales will go to Temple
Sinai Sisterhood.

In the play, a 69-year-old
Ruth Westheimer (she is now
90) tells the story of her life to
the audience, from her child-
hood fleeing Nazi Germany to
her present day as a renowned
sex therapist.

“What she lived through
in one life, 10 of us have not
lived through,” said Drucie
McDaniel, who stars as
Westheimer in the 90-minute
one-woman show. “But she
didn’t allow it to defeat her. She
always used it as something
to buoy her up to something
higher, and it was always about
helping other people.”
Westheimer was born
Karola Ruth Siegel in 1928
Germany to a Jewish fam-
ily. At the age of 10, she left
Germany on a Kindertransport
to Switzerland. Her parents
died in the Holocaust.

After the war, she immi-
grated to Israel and joined the
Haganah, where she learned to
be a sniper. She also spent some
time in France.

By the time she immi-
grated to the United States,
Westheimer had already been
divorced. She had to navigate
her new life in New York as a
single mother.

Despite those obstacles, she
flourished. She earned several
18 FEBRUARY 14, 2019
degrees and married a third
time. And, of course, she was
given her own radio show,
which launched her career as a
sex therapist.

“It’s not just called Dr. Ruth
or The Dr. Ruth Story. It’s
Becoming Dr. Ruth,” McDaniel
said. “All the circumstances of
her life, the good and bad, are
what ultimately gave rise to the
person that she became.”
Like many, McDaniel grew
up seeing Dr. Ruth’s famil-
iar face. She was like a Betty
White — an old, sweet lady
who “talked dirty and would
surprise you,” McDaniel said.

So when McDaniel learned
more about Westheimer’s past
while working on this produc-
tion, “all of it” was a surprise.

The play
opens in
Westheimer’s apartment,
where she has lived for decades.

Westheimer is planning to
move to a new home, and as
she packs up the apartment,
she comes across objects that
spark memories of her past.

Tony Braithwaite, the artis-
tic director at Act II Playhouse,
said one-person plays work
well in the playhouse’s small
theater, so he is always looking
for those kinds of shows. He
decided to stage Becoming Dr.

Ruth after reading the script at
someone’s suggestion.

The story of Westheimer’s
life amazed him, particularly
the fact that she fought in
Israel’s War of Independence.

“That blew me away,”
Braithwaite said. “She’s 4-foot-
7, for God’s sake.”
Braithwaite, along with
Director Dan O’Neil, audi-
tioned dozens of actresses for
the part of Dr. Ruth.

But that actress would need
to fill some very specific shoes.

Audiences would have
a clear image as to what Dr.

Ruth should look and sound
like, so they needed some-
one who was short like her
and could pull off her accent,
which is described as German/
From left: Ruth “Dr. Ruth” Westheimer and Drucie McDaniel,
who plays Westheimer in Becoming Dr. Ruth
Drucie McDaniel as Ruth Westheimer
French/Israeli/American. “[McDaniel is] not doing an
exact recreation of Dr. Ruth’s
voice,” said O’Neil, who was
a student of McDaniel’s at the
University of the Arts. “She’s
not doing an exact impression.

She doesn’t look exactly like
her, but she’s done a really good
job of capturing the essence
of Dr. Ruth.”
McDaniel said that there
are challenges to playing a real
person that playing a fictional
character does not have.

“You don’t want it to just be
an imitation,” McDaniel said.

“You also need to pay homage
to the actual person. You just
want to do it honor, and that’s
a responsibility.”
Westheimer came to see
the show the first night of
the preview — unbeknownst
to McDaniel.

Braithwaite decided to keep
Westheimer’s presence in the
audience a secret because it was
McDaniel’s first night perform-
ing the show in front of a public
audience, and he didn’t want to
JEWISH EXPONENT
Photos by Bill D’Agostino
make her more nervous.

After the perfor-
mance Braithwaite
got on stage and let
everyone, particularly
McDaniel, know that
Westheimer was there.

McDaniel’s jaw
dropped when she
found out.

Westheimer joined
her on the stage, told
McDaniel she had
done a great job and
asked the audience
for questions.

“She was remarkable, so
kind to me and just so gener-
ous and loved our production,”
McDaniel said.

McDaniel said she imag-
ined that Westheimer thought,
when she asked the audience
for question, that they would
have a therapy session. Instead,
the audience wanted to know
more about her life.

At one point during the
Q&A, Westheimer said she
used to talk about her experi-
ence as a Holocaust survivor to
combat deniers. Now, she wants
to combat Holocaust fatigue.

“So much of the play is
about her being a survivor,”
Braithwaite said, “a literal sur-
vivor of the Holocaust but also
a survivor in general, if you
know what I mean. She says at
the end of the play — she holds
up a picture of her grandchil-
dren — and she says, ‘When
I look at them, I know that
Hitler lost and I won.’” l
szighelboim@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM