Bella Abzug Performance: That Beautiful, Ballsy Broad Who Gave ‘Em Hell

Bella Abzug Performance: That Beautiful, Ballsy Broad Who Gave ‘Em Hell

Sun, Aug 25 - 02:00 PM

A peek into the fascinating, entertaining, far-reaching life of brilliant, hat-wearing, ferociously driven, pugnacious Congresswoman, Battling Bella Abzug (1920-1998), whose personality was as big as her mouth.  From a hardworking, New York middle-class Jewish family, to the United States Congress, watch Bella in her own words “kick the hell out of the establishment”.

Lovingly and painstakingly researched, Bella is brought to life with most of the dialogue coming from books and biographies, interviews, and Bella’s own writings and speeches.

As a young woman, she is defiant, rebellious, and determined to break out of her era’s gender-chains and follow her own path to become a lawyer. From defending actors accused of communism or putting her life in danger defending a wrongly convicted black man in 1950s Mississippi, there is nothing she won’t do or anyone she won’t fight for justice. She was a formidable opponent. Once in Congress, despite being surrounded by “schlemiels”, she fought like hell for the Equal Rights Amendment, childcare, gay rights, the environment, and against racism, ageism, corruption, and more and God help anyone who gets in her way. Whether harassing her staff or demanding President Nixon’s resignation, we watch her refuse to accept the status quo and tirelessly and exhaustingly wear everyone down with her chutzpah.

Amy Simon has been a Temple member since 1996. Both her daughters Rose & Ruby have had their  bat-mitzvah here. Amy has performed her past two shows; “Cheerios In My Underwear” and “SHE’S HISTORY!” at the Temple.

She  has been acting and writing since childhood and producing theater for most of her adult life. After ten years of performing plays, sketch, and improv comedy in New York theaters and comedy clubs, including the famed Palace Theater, The Duplex, Folk City, and Manhattan Punch Line, Amy moved west. Her first play, Cheerios In My Underwear (And Other True Tales Of Motherhood), held the record as the longest-running solo play in Los Angeles. It was broken by SHE’S HISTORY! her solo play about women who make and made history, which debuted in 2010 at The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and has been performed around the country. She is currently writing a Young Adult Women’s History book for Bloomsbury Publishing.