Emily Mann Highlights Steinem’s Fabulous Feminism

In Memory of Gloria Steinem. First posted in Theatrius on October 4, 2020.

by Barry David Horwitz

Emily Mann’s exciting and enlightening Off-Broadway play “Gloria: A Life” offers a shocking timeline of how professional women were treated in the 70s and after. The rights women enjoy today were unheard of when Gloria Steinem started working in New York as a journalist.  Bosses tried to seduce or bully her. Steinem had to figure out ways to work “a man’s job” in journalism.

With a talented team of six women, the incomparable Christine Lahti re-creates crucial moments in Steinem’s long history of firsts—starting with her notorious reports working as a ‘Bunny’ at a Playboy Club to the co-founding of Ms. Magazine.

As Steinem, Lahti decisively reaches out beyond white feminism to create her team of revolutionary women. The actors include Joanna Glushak (Bella Abzug), Fedna Jacquet (Dorothy Pitman Hughes), Francesca Fernandez McKenzie, Patrena Murray (Florynce Kennedy), Delanna Studi (Wilma Mankiller), and Liz Wisan. Each woman plays several roles, including editors, managers, and bosses.

Steinem and activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes toured the country together on a bus. They visited the South in an emotionally moving grassroots outreach to Black and White women. They make a powerful team that changed minds and lives—as Steinem recounts in My Life on the Road. She becomes a great Listener—paying attention to other people’s feelings, as Lahti embodies her growth.

It’s stunning to see Steinem waiting in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel for an interview, when the manager tries to shoo her away. He thinks a woman alone must be a prostitute. It’s a treat to watch Steinem get her revenge.

The swirling story goes by at high speed, with projected news clips spinning us through her inspiring life. Her total devotion to the cause and the insulting treatment of women hold us gripped in Lahti’s precise, loving evocation.

It turns out that Steinem’s mother was also a practicing journalist, but gave up writing to be a mom. When the young Gloria discovers her mother’s lost ambitions, she alerts us to the tragedies of many other women.

As Wilma Mankiller, Delana Studi makes a powerful case for Native American women, when Mankiller goes on to become Chief of her tribe. The women onstage embody leaders like Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, and Florynce Kennedy, as well. Change in America becomes their long-term, A-team struggle.

After Gloria’s powerful story, the real Steinem at 84, enters. Dressed exactly like Lahti in flowing bell-bottoms and signature red scarf, the feisty feminist leader answers questions from the adoring New York audience.  Steinem’s 20 minute “Talk Circle” warms our heart and moves our soul.

What’s most exciting is that she had no overall plan but just evolved and developed her views from experience. “Gloria: A Life” shows how Black women leaders gave her greater perspective and revelations.

I enjoyed the videos, headlines, and news stories as they flash onscreen—a spectacular HER-story of  Steinem’s odyssey. I came away with a real appreciation of what one woman could do to fight for equal rights.

But it’s Christine Lahti’s show! After watching Lahti striding around in bell bottoms, in Steinem’s softly assertive manner, we are convinced that this living legend is still listening, and still helping us to change our lives.

“Gloria: A Life” by Emily Mann, directed by Diane Paulus, based on Gloria Steinem‘s My Life on the Road, filmed at Daryl Roth Theater, New York, in 2018—Streaming at PBS.org

Cast: Joanna Glushak (Bella Abzug), Fedna Jacquet (Dorothy Pitman Hughes), Christine Lahti (Gloria Steinem), Francesca Fernandez McKenzie, Patrena Murray (Florynce Kennedy), Delanna Studi (Wilma Mankiller), and Liz Wisan.

Banner photo: Joanna Glushak, Christine Lahti, Fedna Jacquet, Francesca Fernandez McKenzie. Photos: Joan Marcus