Truth be told, there's no mistaking Atlanta acting veteran Judy Leavell for Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the German-born sex therapist she portrays in the one-woman ART Station show "Becoming Dr. Ruth."
Though petite, Leavell might look downright statuesque next to the diminutive Westheimer (who reportedly stands 4 feet 7), and while the actress adopts a vaguely European accent and does an OK job with Westheimer’s distinctive giggle on a few occasions, Leavell never sounds much like her famous character, either.
One of my favorite Leavell performances was in another one-woman show for ART Station artistic director David Thomas (some 10 years ago), as newspaper advice columnist Ann Landers in “The Lady With All the Answers.” In that case, however, it was a lot easier to accept the conceit, because Landers wasn’t quite the same sort of public figure that Westheimer was in the 1980s and ’90s, based on the popularity of her syndicated radio show “Sexually Speaking” and her recurring appearances on TV’s “Late Night With David Letterman.”
As any good actor would probably tell you, playing a real person isn’t simply a matter of mimicking their mannerisms or simulating their outward appearance, but mainly about channeling and conveying their inner essence or being. Unfortunately, that’s where the shortcomings in this Mark St. Germain script become more apparent.
He's clearly no hack — over the past several years, Theatrical Outfit has produced a number of his better works ("Freud's Last Session," "The God Committee," "The Best of Enemies") — but here he seems to take a by-the-numbers approach to Westheimer's life and career that almost makes the show feel like a glorified bullet-point presentation, without a sufficient amount of connective emotional tissue.
The premise involves Westheimer packing up and moving out of her Manhattan apartment, following the death of her third husband in 1997. (That would make her nearly 70, which inadvertently calls attention to the fact that Leavell also appears slightly young for the role. How’s that for an underhanded compliment?)
Over the course of the 90-minute one-act play, she recounts her Jewish upbringing in 1930s Germany. Most of her family perished in the Holocaust, but as part of the Kindertransport program, which evacuated young children out of harm’s way, she spent her teenage years in Switzerland. After World War II, she relocated to Palestine, where she became a Zionist “sharpshooter” during the Jewish/Arab conflict of the late 1940s.
Later educated in Paris and New York, Westheimer began her career as a school principal, before specializing in social research and experimental psychology. A Planned Parenthood job teaching sex education eventually led to her “overnight stardom” as a celebrity talk-show host and guest.
It’s all as clinical and anecdotal as it can be, when what the show needs is a lot more heart and soul — worthy of not only the real Dr. Ruth, but also of the talented actress playing her.
THEATER REVIEW
“Becoming Dr. Ruth”
Grade: B-
Through Nov. 20. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. $19-$28. ART Station, 5384 Manor Drive, Stone Mountain. 770-469-1105, www.artstation.org.
Bottom line: Ultimately, alas, the capable Judy Leavell is no Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
