Aging is amazing for Lynn Ruth Miller

July 20, 11:27 AMSF Theater ExaminerChad Jones

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Theater Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Saturday afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing two of the extraordinary Lynn Ruth Miller’s shows.

The nearly 75-year-old writer/storyteller/actor is taking two shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland (they can’t get enough of her there), and she’s been working out the kinks during what are essentially open dress rehearsals.

Miller (right), a Peninsula resident, has been on a roll lately. She had a great piece written on her in the London Times: www.timesonline.co.uk and she’s been mentioned TWICE in Jay Leno’s monologues on “The Tonight Show.” Apparently Leno was intrigued by the fact that Miller does a form of striptease and is calling her the “stripping granny.”

The shows I saw, "Another Side of the Looking Glass" and the cabaret show "Aging Is Amazing." The former is a collection of autobiographical stories that cohere into quite a moving, inspiring show. Miller has had an extraordinary life, and her take on aging,

once you’ve stopped applauding her, makes you want to leave the theater and live life with Miller’s gusto.

The cabaret show is the one with the striptease, though Miller is a coy stripper. The striptease is more about the funny costume than it is about baring flesh, but she warbles wonderfully for someone who can’t sing, and she brings humor and levity to the issue of aging, which Miller seems to be doing better than any of us.