The Broad Stage presents award-winning performer/writer Sandra Tsing Loh in The Bitch is Back, streaming "on demand" June 23 through June 30, 2021.
Tickets are included with The Broad Stage membership; all others Pay What You Can ($10-$75). For tickets and information visit thebroadstage.org.
The Bitch is Back is a hilarious, free-wheeling 70-minute solo comedy cabaret piece ostensibly on menopause, middle-age, and mothering. The demographics are astounding. Although women over 40 disappear from film and TV (until reappearing as
Jane Fonda at 80+), more than 1 out of 2 American women are 45 and up; at 50 million, this is the largest swarm of menopausal women in history.
More than a history lesson, however, The Bitch is Back is a humorous rant in Loh's signature mode (as in her slice-of-life commentaries on "The Loh Life," that ran on KCRW and KPCC for 20 years in Los Angeles). The production previously enjoyed a sold out run at the Edye at The Broad Stage in summer 2015 and was taped live.
All ticket holders for The Bitch is Back can join Loh live, at two special "happy hours" celebrating Women 45+. Tsing Loh welcomes special guest
Marlo Thomas at Women 45+ and Relationships at 5pm PT/8pm ET on Thursday, June 24. Thomas' recent book, What Makes A Marriage Last, co-authored with husband
Phil Donohue, is just published in paperback.
On Saturday, June 26 at 5pm PT/8pm ET, Loh welcomes special guests
Caroline Aaron,
Marilu Henner,
Melanie Mayron, and
JoBeth Williams in a "happy hour" with Women 45+ and Theater: Thoughts on
Wendy Wasserstein, co-hosted by New York Stage and Film, Chris Burney artistic director.
On the journey in The Bitch is Back, Loh covers Costco samples, what people really use Q-Tips for, the great underground society of mothers who have to get stoned to go to Michael's, and her ritual for weighing herself (which requires two weeks of deep meditation and the exact correct arrangement of Tibetan prayer flags). In this unique film, the Edye stage is transformed into an extended bar, where Sandra personally serves plastic cups of wine to the cathartically howling audience members.
Loh said, "As we re-enter in this post-pandemic moment, watching this time capsule of the recent past, reminds of all of the things we no longer take for granted, but look forward to having again. We know the bitch will be back in more ways than we could have known then!"
The critics raved over The Bitch is Back. The Los Angeles Times said it was "composed of equal parts exasperation and exhilaration." LA Weekly said "[Loh] tackles the issue with wit, perspective, and seemingly boundless in-your-face energy." Broadway World said "
Sandra Tsing Loh grabs her predominantly female audience by the hair (and their accompanying males by their balls). . . Loh's just too funny" and Culture Spot LA declared "
Sandra Tsing Loh is in a league of her own."
The production is based on The Bitch is Back, her Atlantic article which was named a Best American Essay 2014, and which subsequently became a book, The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones, a New York Times 100 Notable Book of 2015.
"Bitch Week" (June 23-30, 2021) also celebrates the paperback release (June 29) of Loh's follow-up to "The Madwoman in the Volvo." Also published by W.W. Norton, "The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem" was selected as a New York Times New and Noteworthy book in 2019. The New York Times Book Review called it "Hilarious, snarky, insightful, and compassionate." Shana Nys Dambrot of LA Weekly said "This wildly funny book proves that the more of life's indignities that are heaped on
Sandra Tsing Loh, the more we will thrill to her brilliant wit and rock-solid resilience. I laughed about seventy times, welled up twice, and cried at the end. Spectacular."
Through social media, Loh will also be organizing women's watch parties, with gift swag (goddess pants, "Madwoman" wine glasses, free books, specialty cocktails). Interested parties can write to Sandra directly via her website
sandratsingloh.com
The Bitch is Back is written and performed by
Sandra Tsing Loh, directed by
Bart DeLorenzo, and produced by
Frier McCollister. Video production is by Jordan McKittrick and Christina Wolfgram.
