The First Lady of Television Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...Sherman’s play, directed and shrewdly cast by BJ Jones and featuring Joe Dempsey as the TV director Walter Hart, imagines the inter-cast conversations about the situation (being known as a communist sympathizer was a career-killer at the time) and the play is an admiring moral fable, really, about a superstar who put doing the right thing ahead of her own self-interest. Obviously, the network battles now come with some contemporary relevance."

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...Now having its world premiere at Skokie’s Northlight Theatre, James Sherman’s “The First Lady of Television,” puts Berg front and center in a period piece embedded with a razor’s edge of contemporary urgency and spliced through with comedy."

Daily Herald - Recommended

"...Broadcast pioneer and writer/actor Gertrude Berg - as imagined by playwright James Sherman and portrayed by the ideally cast Cindy Gold - issues that directive to the co-stars of her TV show several times during Sherman's chillingly resonant, 1950-set play "The First Lady of Television" premiering at Northlight Theatre."

Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended

"...Kicking off its 50th Anniversary Season, Northlight Theatre proudly presents a captivating and memorable production with the World Premiere of James Sherman's The First Lady of Television. This meaningful play is enthralling, engaging audiences with its gripping historical themes of challenging injustice, communism, and fascism, while bringing to life the remarkable journey of an iconic figure in the world of television."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...In James Sherman’s new play, “The First Lady of Television” smoothly directd by BJ Jones on a clever set designed by Jeffrey D. Kmiec, we meet the family as played by Ms. Berg’s ( a part that may have been written with Cindy Gold in mind) cast of players. They are preparing or what actors call rehearsing for that night’s broadcast. At this time, there is a great deal of talk about Communism and the black listing of actors. Berg’s co-star Phillip Loeb (deftly handled by William Dick) who portrayed her husband Jake, is being asked to name names. There were union politics and civil rights involved, and since she ran her show, she vowed that she would do what she could to save him."

Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended

"...As the audience listens to the six characters in this warm and welcoming sitcom, they'll recognize similar sentiments from the mouths of today's government Conservatives. Eventually Gertrude Berg, a pioneer in radio and television, found more on her plate than simply creating a quality show. As well as heading up the "The Goldbergs," she had other problems with which to deal. She couldn't have foreseen them coming at the beginning of the adventure. But as we revisit this dark period in American history, a quotation can't help but reverberate: "Those who cannot (or will not) remember history are condemned to repeat it." This is an important message to live by."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...James Sherman’s world premiere play, directed by BJ Jones, is the story of one day in the life of The Goldbergs, a middle-class Jewish family who live in the Bronx. Sherman sets his story in a 1950 television studio, as the cast rehearses for the sitcom, which is considered one of the first programs of that genre. The “first lady” is Gertrude Berg, who overcame much of the male patriarchy of the era to write and produce her own show."

PicksInSix - Highly Recommended

"...This is the story of a grand storyteller named Gertrude Berg. She is the subject of James Sherman's marvelous, articulate plunge into show business history, “The First Lady of Television.” It's the latest production from Northlight Theatre currently at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie"

MaraTapp.org - Highly Recommended

"...James Sherman’s fine new play, The First Lady of Television, offers history and a warning for our times. Let’s start with the history: Molly Goldberg was portrayed by Gertrude Berg, one of the first American women to work as a sit-com radio and TV writer and producer. She was the driving force behind and creator of the popular and politically progressive series on the Goldbergs, also playing Mother Molly in the broadcast iterations of the show that ran from the late 1920s through the mid-1950s. In the 1940s, Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy, a right-wing Republican, began what was to become the infamous and toxic “Red Scare.” It reached a fever pitch in the early 1950s when fear of spreading Communism overseas was spiking. Many artists, journalists, labor and Civil Rights leaders and professors were investigated, many called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and many blacklisted."

Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended

"...The performance is a tour de force - layered, nuanced, and deeply human. The set and staging transport us right into Berg's world, whether in her living room or on the studio floor. For those who remember The Goldbergs, it's a nostalgic return. For those discovering Gertrude Berg for the first time, it's an eye-opening tribute to a true pioneer."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...James Sherman’s “The First Lady of Television” is astounding. He seamlessly blends the intersections of popular culture, politics, socioeconomics and religion. This show is an excellent reminder that none of us live in a vacuum. In fact, we never have. Seventy years later, we are still finding ourselves battling it out with America Firsters and vitriolic politicians badly hiding their bigotry under the guise of moral absolutism—which wouldn’t apply to them, of course."