Jewish Press of Tampa

World premiere of play about RBG at St. Pete theater


Michelle Azar will star as the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Michelle Azar will star as the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The world-premiere of “All Things Equal: The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” will open the autumn season for freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg, running from Oct. 5-23.

The play was written by Rupert Holmes, the first person in theatrical history to solely win Tony awards as an author, a composer and a lyricist.

The RBG play is part of freeFall’s American Character Series which previously included productions featuring the stories of James Beard, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

About the play

In “All Things Equal,” Supreme Court Justice “RBG” welcomes a friend of the family to her cozy chambers to convey, over the course of 90 fascinating and often funny minutes, a sense of her life and its many trials: losing her mother the day before she graduated as valedictorian of her Brooklyn high school … being one of only nine young women studying law at Harvard while also raising a daughter and helping her husband battle cancer … fighting for women’s rights in the 1970s before condescending all-male courts … and taking courageous stands for human rights as a voice of reason amid a splintering Supreme Court.

About the playwright

Holmes authored and composed the Broadway musical-comedy “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” based on Charles Dickens unfinished novel. The 1985 musical won the Tony award for Best Musical. His comedy-drama about the life of comedian George Burns, “Say Goodnight, Gracie,” earned him a Tony nomination for Best Play and won the National Broadway Theatre Award for Best Play. His stage comedy-thrillers “Accomplice” and “Solitary Confinement” broke existing box office records for the Kennedy Center and the Pasadena Playhouse, with both shows enjoying runs on Broadway.

More about the show

Michelle Azar will play Ginsburg. Her performance background began in Chicago where she sang with the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s children’s choir. She received Ovation awards for her roles in both dramatic and comedic roles with her theatre company, Neurotic Young Urbanites. She also has television and film credits.

“All Things Equal” is directed by Laley Lippard. Her directing credits include working at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

After its debut here, the show will go onto the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY.

Tickets can be purchased online at freefalltheatre.com and run between $45 and $55.

The freeFall Theatre is located at 6099 Central Ave., St. Petersburg.

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