‘All Things Equal’ an intimate portrait of RBG

The play “All Things Equal – The Life & Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsberg” will be presented by Pitt-Bradford Arts Nov. 29. 

Tickets for the 7 p.m. show in in Blaisdell Hall at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford are $20 for the public, $16 for faculty and staff, and $5 for students. They can be bought at www.upb.pitt.edu/TheArts or by calling the Bromeley Family Theater Box Office from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays at 814-362-5113. Tickets will also be available on the night of the performance.
Called a “A must see!” by Broadway World, the biographical one-woman show written by Tony award-winning Rupert Holmes about the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg will highlight Ginsberg’s fight for equality. 

In its nearly two years of touring, “All Things Equal” has sold out entire amphitheaters across the United States. Audiences are in for an intimate view into Ginsberg’s life -- from her time in Harvard Law School to her work as a defense lawyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. There are surprises in between for those unfamiliar with the late justice’s long life. 

Starring as Ginsberg, actor Michelle Azar has been described by Broadway World as “a revelation as the legendary jurist, carrying the show effortlessly.” Azar said in an East Village Magazine interview that, as a Jewish woman, she could connect with Ginsberg as a person despite that aspect being a background to the performance. 

Overall, Azar has nothing but praise for the woman she’s portraying, saying in the same interview, “I believe Ruth understood her influence [on] society across the generations, even to the younger generations. But I don’t think RBG thought of herself as something better than anyone else.”

Beyond this show, Azar has TV credits that include “How to Get Away with Murder,” “The Magicians,” and “Criminal Minds.” In the theater, she has acted in acclaimed plays such as “Bronco Billy” in the Skylight Theater and “My Barking Dog” in the Boston Court Performing Arts Center. 

Rupert Holmes, the award-winning writer behind the show, told DC Theatre Arts in an interview that during the process of writing the play, he “became passionate to write about what [Ginsberg] did for human rights and her tenacity and what she believed about our judicial system.” Holmes pointed to his wife, Liza, as inspiration in the development of “All Things Equal” as he noticed parallels between her and Ginsberg’s life. 

Holmes, originally a musician starting out in the 1970s, has also found success as a novelist, a screenwriter, a composer and a playwright. 

The play is directed by Laley Lippard, who has made her mark in the theatrical world as a co-producer of the Chicago Home Theater Festival and collaborator with the Steppenwolf Theater Company. Directorially, Lippard has premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Cleveland Play House and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, just to name a few.

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