Reviving 'Whoopi'

Twenty years after the debut of her lauded solo outing, Whoopi Goldberg returns to Broadway with an update on her eccentric characters.

NEW YORK - Whoopi Goldberg is back on Broadway in the one-woman show that launched her career 20 years ago, and much is the same: same theater, same big-name producer and much of the same material.

Another thing that's the same? She still has no idea what might happen next onstage.

Two decades after wowing critics in Whoopi with her portrayal of five characters, ranging from a street-wise drug dealer to a blissed-out surfer, Goldberg has updated the menagerie that lives only in her head. Who exactly shows up onstage, however, is another matter entirely.

"I have less control than I would like," says Goldberg, 49, sounding more like a medium than a playwright. "It's one thing to write this stuff down on a piece of paper. But when I hit the boards, whoever decides to come out is who comes out."

During an interview in her funky downtown apartment, Goldberg lights cigarette after cigarette as she shares a sofa with her hairless cat, Oliver, and explains this strange alchemy and her decision to revive the show. "You know how you have a 30th birthday? This is a 20-year mark for me. And in a funny way, it's just to say, "Wow. I'm still here after 20 years. What a shock!' "

Goldberg's path back to the Lyceum Theatre started in October with a trial run in Philadelphia, where she worked on six or seven characters. She quickly learned that 20 years had taken its physical toll.

"Oh yeah, baby. I was not carrying this much back space," she says, gesturing to her backside. "I discovered that in Philadelphia. I was like, "Oh, okay, old broad. Try not to crinkle up quite so quickly.' "

Back on board again is Mike Nichols, who "presents" the show just as he did in 1984, when his mentoring sent Goldberg onward toward a career that now includes an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, two Golden Globes and a Tony.

Returning after two decades - well, at least theoretically - are the junkie Fontaine, the Surfer Chick, the Crippled Lady and the Jamaican Woman, who each comment on the world from their unique perspectives. All have been updated.

"So much hasn't changed and so much has," Goldberg says.

One noticeable adjustment is to the 6-year-old girl character, who wore a white half slip on her head in 1984 so that she would have "long, luxurious blond hair" to match all the beautiful stars on television.

Happily, those days are over.

"Now you have the Naomi Campbells and the African models," Goldberg says. "I call her the mint on the pillow. I have to do her after I've done everyone else because I have to explain that when I did her, this was what the world was like. And now when I do her, she's just like an echo."

Goldberg has had less luck conjuring up a new character: an obese woman the comedian had hoped would become a vehicle for a commentary on weight-obsessed America.

"The way that I develop them is I do them onstage - that's how I know what's right. Well, I couldn't get her. I could not tap into her at all. She just wouldn't come," she says.

Hal Luftig, one of the show's producers, recalls seeing Goldberg's original show and being bowled over by it. He urged her to think about reviving Whoopi for a new generation as well as for old fans keen to know what happened to her oddball characters.

"I think what makes performers like Whoopi successful and brilliant is that these characters really live in their brain almost like - and I don't mean this clinically - almost like a schizophrenic," Luftig says. "It's a voice in their heads."

Those voices have been good to Goldberg, whose career took off partly because of them. After her Broadway launch, she went on to celebrated film roles in The Color Purple, Sister Act and Ghost, HBO specials, more Broadway work with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the clout to push humanitarian efforts.

In recent years, Goldberg's star has somewhat dimmed as roles have dried up, leaving her to scramble for work as varied as children's book author, Academy Award host, bartender on a Star Trek spinoff and a failed turn as talk show host.

She made a short-lived return to Broadway in a revival of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, offered her voice to such animated works as The Lion King 11/2 and appeared in films such as Rat Race and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. She next provides the voice for a goat in the animated Christmas feature Racing Stripes.

Goldberg also has established herself as a producer, shepherding Thoroughly Modern Millie onto Broadway, a remake of Hollywood Squares on TV, the Lifetime series Strong Medicine and the Showtime movie Good Fences.

To gear up for her 88-show return run with Whoopi, Goldberg has tried to get back into shape by doing Pilates in her large yet cozy apartment, which features honey-colored wood floors and furniture, low lighting and cheery African paintings.

"I felt a little aged," she admits. "This is a workout. That's what it showed me: "You better get your act together. And put that licorice down!' "

She also doesn't mind that Broadway seems to be in the midst of a glut of new one-person shows, from Mario Cantone to Dame Edna to Eve Ensler to even pal Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays.

"We're different parts of the same flower," Goldberg says, pooh-poohing any notion of competition. "I'm telling everybody to go see their shows. People don't just go to one thing and say, "That's it.' "

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