June 2, 2021| Santa Monica – 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.
Food/Beverage sponsors include Green Bar Distillery and Deluxe 1717.
For Calendar Section
What: The Bitch is Back
Written and performed by Sandra Tsing Loh
Running time: 70 minutes
Dates: Streaming “on demand” June 23-30, 2021
Tickets: Admission included with The Broad Stage Membership
Non-members pay what you can, $10 - $75
www.thebroadstage.org
Patron Services 310.434.3200 orpatronservices@thebroadstage.org
All ticket holders (members and Pay What You Can) for The Bitch is Back
can also join two special "happy hours" celebrating women 45+:
Thursday, June 24 at 5pm PT/8pm ET - Women 45+ and Relationships with special guest Marlo Thomas.
Saturday, June 26 at 5pm PT/8pm ET -Women 45+ and Theater: Thoughts on Wendy Wasserstein, co-hosted byNew York Stage & Film, Chris Burney artistic director, with special guests Caroline Aaron, Marilu Henner, Melanie Mayron, and JoBeth Williams.
Editors please note when referring to our venue, we are appropriately The Broad Stage (three words) and are located in Santa Monica, California. The Broad (two words)normally refers to the contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.
Sandra Tsing Loh is a writer/performer whose books include the comic memoirs “The Madwoman and the Roomba” (New York Times New and Noteworthy), “The Madwoman and the Volvo” (New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2014), “Mother on Fire”, “A Year in Van Nuys”, “Depth Takes a Holiday”, and a novel, “If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now” (Los Angeles Times 100 Best Fiction Books 1998). Solo shows: Aliens in America and Bad Sex With Bud Kemp (off-Broadway/Second Stage), Sugar Plum Fairy(Geffen, Seattle Rep, South Coast Repertory, Skylight Theatre, East West Players), I Worry (Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville) and The Bitch Is Back (Broad Stage). The play version of “Madwoman in the Volvo” premiered at South Coast Repertory in 2016, enjoying subsequent runs at Pasadena Playhouse and Berkeley Rep. Loh has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and Ira Glass’ “This American Life.” Her syndicated radio minute “The Loh Down on Science” turns 17 this year. She has been a contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly since 2004.
Marlo Thomas is an award-winning actress, author and activist whose body of work continues to impact American entertainment and culture. She has won four Emmys, the Peabody, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can receive, awarded to her by President Barack Obama. Marlo burst onto the scene as “That Girl,” television's first independent working woman, and went on to create the groundbreaking children's record, book and TV special, “Free to Be...You and Me.” She remains a constant presence on television and the Broadway stage, and serves as the National Outreach Director of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by her father, show business legend Danny Thomas. As the author of eight New York Times bestselling books, Marlo made the list again in 2020 with her latest, What Makes a Marriage Last, which she co-authored with her husband, talk show pioneer, Phil Donahue. Inspired by the book, Marlo and Phil also launched a podcast called “Double Date” in 2021, which is produced by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg’s Pushkin Industries.
New York Stage and Film is a non-profit company dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of theater and film. Since 1985, New York Stage and Film has been a vital incubator for artists and their work, a catalyst for stories that start with us and continue across the country and around the world. Each year, our Summer Season, the Powerhouse Training Company, NYC Programming, and Filmmakers' Workshop affect: 400 professional artists; 40 professional projects; 75 student writers, directors, actors, and interns and 10,000 audience members. Dozens of notable works trace their developmental roots to NYSAF, including the 2016 Tony Award winners for Best Musical (Hamilton) and Best Play (The Humans), as well as the Tony Award-winning plays Side Man and Doubt, the Broadway musicals Hadestown, Head Over Heels, American Idiot and Bright Star, and the 2017 Pulitzer finalists The Wolves and Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.
The Broad Stage has pivoted in the age of Covid to presenting a primarily digital lineup of programs featuring a bold array of renowned local, national and international artists, as well as up-and-coming stars. Recent offerings have included Red Hen Press Poetry Hour with esteemed local publisher Red Hen Press, Arturo Sandoval Live from The Broad Stage with legendary trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and the co-commissioned, West Coast Premiere of master illusionist Scott Silven’s The Journey. In addition to digital programming, alternative in-person events including the Dance Camera West DRIVE-IN: Best of the Festival have provided a safe way to gather.
The Broad Stage gathers artists, thinkers and audiences to celebrate our shared humanity and expand the role the arts play in the vitality of our diverse community. In addition, our immersive Education & Community programs serve thousands of schoolchildren and families, and provide ongoing opportunities for SMC students and faculty to directly engage with the art and artists.
The Broad Stage primarily utilizes the state-of-the-art venues at Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center including The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage main stage, The Edye Second Space and The East Wing, and also increasingly brings a variety of site-specific work and community programs to spaces across the Westside. The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage main stage is unlike any performance space in the country; it is sublimely intimate with just over 500 seats yet strikingly grand in its feel, boasting one of the city’s largest proscenium stages. The 100-seat black box Edye Second Space and the versatile East Wing are adaptable performing spaces allowing for a wide variety of artists and experiences.
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