Whoopi Goldberg returns to Broadway

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 on stage.

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 on stage, 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 sparks 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, OK, 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 Academy Award, Emmy, 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 actresses 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 on stage -- 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.

Others have a habit of appearing and taking over. Her show, which is scheduled to run only about an hour, once ran twice as long during the beginning of her run in Philadelphia, thanks to Fontaine mouthing off.

"Everyone has so much to say because there's so much happening in the world and so many things slipping away. ... I've had to pare them down," she says. "Sometimes I get mad at them because I feel like they say too much. But they come as they chose. And if probably I talked to a shrink I would be in an institution somewhere being studied."

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 such film roles as "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.

"It all sort of exploded -- like a toilet," she says of her career arc.

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" spin-off 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 1 1/2" and appeared in films like "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."

The ups and downs of her career have done little to dim her sense of humor. With her trademark dreadlocks framing a pair of small round glasses, Goldberg smiles easily and is the first to lampoon herself.

She says that knowing in the back of her mind that she has always had the ability to create her own oddball characters somehow makes signing on to other peoples' projects much less scary.

"It's what makes doing other stuff easier -- to know that I can do what I need to do will allow me to go and play, you know, a penguin," she says. "It makes it easier to accept other assignments when I know I can go do my own thing."

To gear up for her 88-show return run, Goldberg has tried to get back into shape by doing Pilates in her large yet cozy apartment that 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 things and say, 'That's it."'

One question remains: Now that she's celebrating her own show's 20th anniversary, has Goldberg considered another revival in 2024 for the 40th anniversary?

"I'd have to keep doing Pilates all the way until then!" she moans.