ALL THINGS EQUAL - THE LIFE AND TRIALS OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG Is Coming To The Fisher Theatre in April

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All Things Equal – The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will embark on another national tour for the 2023-24 season as it eyes a New York City theater. The lauded play, which had a highly successful world premiere tour last season, is written by multiple Tony Award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes and stars acclaimed actress Michelle Azar. Over the course of ninety fascinating and often funny minutes, the play presents an intimate portrayal of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a true American original. All Things Equal will stop in Detroit at The Fisher Theatre on Saturday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 1 and will be available online at BroadwayInDetroit.com at 10:00 a.m. and at the Fisher Theatre box office starting at noon. 

“In creating this play about her richly-lived life and hard-fought struggles, I came to ever more deeply marvel at her strength, tenacity, sly wit, and compassion,” commented Rupert Holmes.  “Our play also reveals the love song that ran through her remarkable life and shares the music that was her giddy delight. All Things Equal offers each theatregoer the chance to better know this woman, her yearning for equality, and her love for this nation's precious institutions: Ruth ... Justice ... and the American way,” continued Holmes.

Holmes invites the audience into the intimacy of RGB's life and her 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 1970's before condescending all-male courts ... and taking courageous stands for human rights as a voice of reason amid a splintering and increasingly politicized Supreme Court.

An evening with a great and compassionate icon of straight-thinking American justice emerges ... an RBG who is not only “notorious” but victorious as she takes a stand for ordinary people facing the many challenges of a changing world. Holmes brilliantly captures RBG's compelling life, leaving no question why she became a cross-generational role model that inspired tens of millions of Americans and a worldwide following.

For more information, please visit: https://www.scottstander.com/rbg.html 

And on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allthingsequalrbg/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allthingsequalrbg 

About the Team

Rupert Holmes, Playwright

Award-winning playwright-composer-lyricist-orchestrator-conducter-novelist-singer-songwriter is the first person in theatrical history to singly win Tony awards for Best Book, Music & Lyrics. Broadway: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony & Drama Desk award winner for Best Musical, Book, Music, Lyrics, Orchestrations); Curtains with Kander and Ebb (Drama Desk award, Best Book; Tony nom. Best Musical, Book, Lyrics); Say Goodnight, Gracie (Tony nom. Best Play; LORT National Broadway Theatre Award, Best Play); Accomplice (Edgar Award, Mystery Writers of America); A Time to Kill (adapting John Grisham's novel); Roundabout Theatre revival The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony nom. Best Revival). Over twenty regional musicals and plays performed at major venues around the world. Novels: Where the Truth Lies (adapted for film starring Colin Firth, Kevin Bacon, dir. by Atom Egoyan); Swing #24 all books on Amazon. Coming in 2023:The McMasters Guide to Homicide: Murder Your Employer, Simon & Schuster/Avid Reader Press. Motion Pictures: Contributed songs to Golden Globe-winning score of A Star is Born (Streisand/Kristofferson). Television: Created and scripted all 55 episodes of AMC's first original series Remember WENN. Recording: A Billboard #1 singer-songwriter of the 1970s and 1980s including his own iconic international hit “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” featured in over 50 motion pictures; wrote, arranged & conducted platinum albums for Barbra Streisand; songs recorded by Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, Britney Spears, Rita Coolidge, Renée Fleming, countless others. Recipient of the George M. Cohan Award from ASCAP and recently received an Honorary Doctorate from The Manhattan School of Music.

Michelle Azar, Lead Actress

Her performance background began in Chicago where she sang with the Lyric Opera of Chicago's children's choir. She received an MA and BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and started working immediately as Janis Joplin in Beehive. Once moving to Los Angeles, she received Ovation awards for her roles in both dramatic and comedic roles with her theatre company, Neurotic Young Urbanites, and was the 2016 Stage Raw award winner for Best Actress in Eric Coble's My Barking Dog directed by Michael Michetti at the Boston Court Theatre. Other favorite stage credits: Bella in Lost in Yonkers, Berte in Boeing, Boeing ( La Mirada Theatre) Masha in Mayakovsky and Stalin (Cherry Lane Theatre) The Awakening of Spring (Circle Rep) and the creation of Constance Lily in the recent hit musical, Bronco Billy (Skylight Theatre).  Select television and film credits include:  NCIS LA, HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, CRIMINAL MINDS, THE MAGICIANS, AQUARIUS, COMMUNITY, and the recently released film, SENIOR MOMENT with Gene Smart and William Shatner.

Laley Lippard (she/her), Director

Lippard is a director, creative producer, and educator. Lippard has directed and collaborated with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Guthrie Theater, Round House Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Cleveland Play House, American Theater Company, Magic Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Court Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, among others. World Premiere directing projects include Matt Pelfry's Pure Shock Value, Eric Coble's These Mortal Hosts, and the National New Play Network's Rolling World Premiere of David Valdes' The Mermaid Hour. Her site specific work has been noted in The New York Times (The Smuggler with Solas Nua) and her devised work was recently adapted to her first film which premiered in NY (In the Middle of the Fields). Lippard was the co-founder and co-executive producer of The Chicago Home Theater Festival, a five-year city-wide artistic network and annual event that organized artists across form, local community leaders, youth, and other invested neighbors to celebrate neighborhood culture, share a communal meal, experience transformative art, build intentional community across lines of difference, and inspire direct action. Other producing work includes Z/Magic Mondays at Magic Theatre as Artistic Associate, with The Welders as Interim Creative Producer, and as Cleveland Play House's inaugural Artistic Directing Fellow. During the quarantine, Lippard developed, curated and produced over 30 events with a DC theater company including Creative Conversations, Peace Cafes, and more with local and international scholars, artists, community leaders, and change-makers. For this original series developed by Lippard, she curated an hour long memorial of Ruth Bader Ginsburg hosted by Edward Gero featuring Molly Smith, E. Faye Butler, Craig Wallace, and Ginsburg's nephew actor Rory Boyd. Lippard has taught, workshopped, and directed at Universities including Stanford University, Northwestern University, Hampshire College, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland, and Case Western Reserve MFA Acting program. Lippard is a member of the National Directors Fellowship, a partnership between the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, National New Plays Network, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and The Kennedy Center; a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab; an Associate Member of the SDC, and holds an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University.  

Scott Stander, Producer

Stander has produced concerts and theatre attractions for the last 20 years including the Rocky Horror Picture Show Spectacular Tour and “Judy Garland We Need A Little Christmas”, starring internet sensation Debbie Wileman. He has also produced Debbie Wileman's Happy 100th Birthday, Judy! concert and her debut CD: "I'm Still Here - The Songs Judy Would Sing".  Past hits: An Evening With Sophia Loren (10 city US tour - Spring 2016); Dance To The Movies starring Shirley Jones and Lesley Ann Warren (Spring 2016); Dancing With A Twist-mas (Christmas 2015); Ballroom With Twist – starring TVs Derek Hough, Cheryl Burke, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Karina Smirnoff, Tony Dovolani and Peta Murgatroyd (National Tour – 5 seasons)  Broadway:  If You Ever Leave Me I'm Going With You starring Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna (Broadway and Chicago Company and National Tour); Steve Allen and Phyllis Diller – Together Again For The First Time (12 city Concert Tour); An Evening With Shirley Bassey (10 city Concert Tour); Milton Berle's 90th Birthday Celebration (13 city tour); Breaking Legs starring Frank Gorshin (Off Broadway and tour); Say Goodnight Gracie (2nd National Broadway Tour starring Don McArt – 3 year tour); Odd Couple – Female Version starring Barbara Eden and Rita McKenzie (National Tour  – 3 seasons); Love Letters starring Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman and Hal Linden (National tour);  Bermuda Avenue Triangle starring Renee Taylor, Joe Bologna and Lainie Kazan (National Tour); Ethel Merman's Broadway starring Rita McKenzie (Off Broadway-John Houseman Theatre and National Tour). 

All Things Equal – The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is coming to the Fisher Theatre on Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $39 (includes parking & facility fee) and will go on sale on Friday, December 1. Tickets can be purchased online at BroadwayInDetroit.com at 10:00 a.m. and in person at the Fisher Theatre box office starting at noon.

For group sales (10 or more) please email broadwayindetroitgroups@theambassadors.com or call 313-871- 1132.

Performance schedules, prices and cast are subject to change without notice. Broadway In Detroit urges patrons to use caution when purchasing tickets online through a site other than BroadwayInDetroit.com. Individual tickets purchased from a ticket broker or “third party” ticket reseller involves risk and may not be authentic, sold at box office prices, or with correct performance and venue information. Broadway In Detroit box offices cannot verify tickets sold through a third party or ticket reseller. Broadway In Detroit is also unable to contact third party purchasers with pertinent updates or changes regarding performances.

For more information on Broadway in Detroit, subscriptions, group sales and more, please visit www.BroadwayinDetroit.com

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