“A magnificently witty and touching testament to a woman who refused to compromise...Jessica Sherr is a star in the making” —The List
Hollywood icon Bette Davis broke the glass ceiling for women in the entertainment industry. Trapped by the movie studios who owned her, Davis wrestled with movie moguls and fought against their unfair system of low pay and meager roles.
In Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies, actress and playwright Jessica Sherr powerfully channels Davis in her campaign against the male-dominated studio system. On the night of the 1939 Oscars, Davis returns home knowing she’s to lose Best Actress to Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara, because the press has leaked the winners. From there, she takes us on the bumpy ride of her tumultuous rise, as the tenacious actress fights her way up the studio system to reach the top of her profession.
Through conversations with her mother Ruthie, scenes of her friendship with Olivia De Havilland, her love affairs with revered film director William Wyler and eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes, her dysfunctional relationship with her daughter, her four failed marriages, her ground breaking court case with Warner Brothers (which she lost), and being subject to ageism in Hollywood, we experience Davis’s most defining and most vulnerable moments in her courageous battle against sexism and inequity.
Directed by Karen Carpenter, this production gives audiences a humanizing experience into the mind of a global icon whose voice could not remain silent. Her struggles and triumphs were generations ago, but her story is an inspiration for today, empowering audiences to stand up and fight for what they believe in.