The Whoopi Monologues: Tickets, Cast & Lincoln Center Guide

What Is The Whoopi Monologues?

In 1984, a then-unknown San Francisco performer named Whoopi Goldberg brought a one-woman show to Broadway that nobody quite knew how to categorize. It wasn’t stand-up. It wasn’t a play with a plot. It was a sequence of fully-formed characters — a young girl, a Jamaican woman, a drug addict, an elderly man, a surfer — each given the full weight of a monologue, performed solo, one after another. It ran at the Lyceum Theatre for 156 performances, won Goldberg the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards, and became one of the defining solo performances of its era.

This new production doesn’t try to recreate that solo format. Instead, director Whitney White and a five-woman ensemble — Kerry Washington, Kara Young, Dominique Fishback, Kecia Lewis, and Danielle Pinnock — divide Goldberg’s characters among them, giving the monologues a different texture: five distinct performers, five different ways into the material, all built from the same source.

It is not a musical. It is not a jukebox show. It is not a stand-up set. It’s closer to a theatrical character study — funny, sharp, and built entirely around performance and writing rather than spectacle.

Who’s In The Whoopi Monologues

The ensemble is the entire draw here, and it’s a genuinely stacked one — film and television crossover stars next to working theater actors with real Broadway pedigree.

Always check the official Lincoln Center Theater schedule before booking if you’re going specifically to see a particular cast member — performance schedules can shift.

Previews, Opening Night & the Limited Run

This is a short, fixed engagement — not an open run — and the calendar is worth understanding before you pick a date.

Because this is a short, high-recognition Off-Broadway run, demand tends to build fast once reviews and opening-week press start circulating. Better dates and seat selection are generally easier to find before that wave hits than after.

How to Get The Whoopi Monologues Tickets

Start with Lincoln Center Theater’s official site or an authorized ticketing partner — never a secondary reseller as your first stop. From there, the strategy is straightforward but worth being deliberate about.

Don’t assume Off-Broadway automatically means easy or cheap. A limited-run, celebrity-led production at a prestige venue like Lincoln Center Theater can move and sell more like a hot Broadway ticket than a casual downtown show. Treat the booking decision with the same urgency you would for any high-demand limited engagement.

The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater is one of Lincoln Center Theater’s three performance spaces, alongside the Vivian Beaumont (Broadway) and the Claire Tow (the company’s smallest Off-Broadway house). The Newhouse itself is Off-Broadway — an intimate, flexible room built for performance-forward work rather than large-scale spectacle, which makes it exactly the right fit for a monologue-driven piece like this one.

The setting matters as much as the room. Lincoln Center sits on the Upper West Side, a world away from the Times Square density most visitors associate with NYC theater — calmer streets, a more grown-up dining scene nearby, and a campus-like plaza that makes arriving early feel like part of the evening rather than a hassle. See the Upper West Side neighborhood guide for the fuller picture.

For the full row-by-row breakdown, 3/4 thrust stage explainer, and Row H accessibility details: Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater Seating Guide →

Who The Whoopi Monologues Is Best For

Is It Broadway or Off-Broadway?

Off-Broadway — presented by Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, not one of the 41 designated Broadway houses. That distinction is about theater size and structure, not prestige. Off-Broadway means a smaller venue, different production economics, and often more intimate, artistically focused staging — and as this production proves, it doesn’t mean fewer major stars or smaller institutions. Lincoln Center Theater is one of the most respected companies in American theater, period.

Full breakdown of the distinction, including ticket prices and what to expect from each: Broadway vs Off-Broadway.

Plan the Night Around Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center is not Times Square, and the planning should reflect that. This is a calmer, more elegant pre-show evening — Josie Robertson Plaza and the fountain in front of the Metropolitan Opera make for an easy, photogenic arrival, and the Upper West Side dining scene around it is genuinely strong rather than tourist-trap dense.

For a 7:30 or 8:00 curtain, aim for dinner around 5:30–6:00 — enough time to eat without rushing, and enough buffer to walk the plaza before heading in. The restaurants near Lincoln Center guide covers the strongest options nearby.

After the show, skip fighting the Times Square crowds entirely — the Upper West Side has quiet wine bars and dessert spots within a few blocks that make for a much better close to the evening. For getting there and home, see the how to get to Lincoln Center guide and the parking near Lincoln Center guide if you’re driving in.

FAQ: The Whoopi Monologues