{"id":2125177,"date":"2025-10-30T17:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2125177"},"modified":"2025-10-30T17:30:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:30:23","slug":"stellar-acting-in-a-womens-lib-play-on-broadway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/stellar-acting-in-a-womens-lib-play-on-broadway\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellar acting in a Women&#8217;s Lib play on Broadway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F10%2Fnewspress-collage-lzffy41gu-1761843253980.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261761828977\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--review alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n\t\t<span class=\"inline-module--review__eyebrow subsection-heading-semi__label\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tTheater review\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"inline-module--review__title subsection-heading-semi\">\n\t\t\tLIBERATION\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"rating\">\n<div class=\"rating__stars\">\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--filled\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 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stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--filled\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--empty\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At the James Earl Jones Theatre.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Progress ain\u2019t easy, preaches the new Broadway play \u201cLiberation,\u201d which opened Tuesday night at the James Earl Jones Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>That bittersweet message is a common one onstage. How many issue-based shows have you seen that wrap up with, \u201cAnd, from then on, the world was perfect\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Messiness and dissatisfaction abound, here too, and that\u2019s kind of the point.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But along with the \u201cone step forward, two steps back\u201d takeaway of playwright Bess Wohl\u2019s 1970s-set dramedy comes plenty of hot-tempered clashes, solid jokes and, to ensure no one dozes off, an extended full-frontal nudity scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During that bare-it-all sequence, which some might deem gratuitous, the woman in front of me quite animatedly liberated herself from her seat.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--columnist inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--single-line \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Johnny Oleksinski<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Even if Wohl\u2019s play is overlong and ambles repetitively at times, there\u2019s nothing didactic or \u201ceat your spinach\u201d about the enjoyable and touching story of a weekly women\u2019s group in 1970s Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not afraid of fun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiberation\u201d is a \u201cmemory play,\u201d we\u2019re told by a present-day narrator, who\u2019s embodied by Susannah Flood with so little artifice that ticket-buyers in the orchestra started having casual conversations with her from their seats. And nobody in the theater seemed to mind the chatter. About as open-hearted as it gets, Flood is simply a marvel here.<\/p>\n<p>Her character tells us she\u2019ll be playing her late mother, Lizzie, in an attempt to understand mom better and figure out what happened to the Women\u2019s Lib outpost she once started from a Midwest high-school rec room.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The Broadway play \u201cLiberation\u201d is about a weekly Women\u2019s Lib meeting during the 1970s. <span class=\"credit\">The Press Room NYC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A flier brings together domestic Margie (Betsy Aidem), trapped for decades in loveless marriage, New York badass Susan (Adina Verson), straight-shooter Italian immigrant Isadora (Irene Sofia Lucio), black editor Celeste and Dora (Audrey Cora), an office worker who wandered in thinking it was a knitting group.<\/p>\n<p>The members all lead very different lives and, although they agree on their movement\u2019s ultimate goals, they butt heads about the best approaches to achieve them.<\/p>\n<p>Cramming a bunch of archetypes into a contentious weekly meeting is a familiar structure. Two plays last season used it: \u201cEnglish\u201d and \u201cEureka Day,\u201d both of which were stronger and tighter than \u201cLiberation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wohl shakes up the old formula some, hopping back and forth through time and adding in revealing sit-down interviews set in the future. A riveting scene in the second act between Kayla Davion\u2019s mysterious Joanne and Charlie Thurston\u2019s Bill, begins with an unexpectedly emotional body swap.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The six women lead different lives, and disagree on how to achieve their aims. <span class=\"credit\">The Press Room NYC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The hard-to-avoid downside of this set-up, in which everyone operates at their most extreme, is some of the dialogue skews talking-head rather than that of real people sitting in a room together.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All of the performances are terrific, perfectly pitched by director Whitney White, and the actresses click formidably as a unit. However, as individuals, Susan, Isadora, Celeste and Dora are there, in large part, to deliver punchlines and illustrate points. Two characters are miles more involving than the rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The soul of \u201cLiberation\u201d belongs to Margie and Lizzie.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Betsy Aidem is remarkable as Margie. <span class=\"credit\">The Press Room NYC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Aidem\u2019s suburban wife, while representative of a generation of women for whom big change would not come soon enough, packs a wallop as a fleshed-out person.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During a gutting speech, she lists off her Everest of daily chores at home. Her silent husband doesn\u2019t even know how to make a pot of coffee. And the pain cranks up with every mentioned item.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And I just can\u2019t lavish enough praise on Flood. The actress, who is always on the verge of a flood of tears, is totally authentic as both a 1970s woman trying to balance risky trailblazing with her own personal dreams \u2014 ones that could mark her as a traitor to her cause \u2014 and as a curious daughter eagerly diving into her mom\u2019s past.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The actress is remarkably relatable and empathetic. When her voice trembles, so do we.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Susannah Flood plays both Lizzie in the 1970s, and her daughter in the present day.  <span class=\"credit\">The Press Room NYC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the beginning of the play, when Flood spoke to the audience as the narrator, she started to choke up at the mention of the character\u2019s mother.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Said a woman seated in the front row: \u201cWe understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theater review LIBERATION Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At the James Earl Jones Theatre. Progress ain\u2019t easy, preaches the new Broadway play \u201cLiberation,\u201d which opened Tuesday night at the James Earl Jones Theatre. That bittersweet message is a common one onstage. How many issue-based shows have you seen that wrap up with, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2125178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[344468,21741,350667,24047,345886],"class_list":["post-2125177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-broadway","tag-entertainment","tag-plays","tag-theater","tag-theater-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Stellar-acting-in-a-Womens-Lib-play-on-Broadway.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2125177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2125179,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125177\/revisions\/2125179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2125178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2125177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2125177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2125177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}