A special play is coming to Buffalo. It focuses on the life of Erma Bombeck, and tells the story of how she juggled family life and her humorous, iconic newspaper column.
And the woman who plays Bombeck in ‘At Wit’s End’ is the perfect fit for the part.
Bombeck, a mother of three, gave up her journalism profession to become a full-time housewife. But that didn’t suit her so well… so she started writing from home.
“She liked to say she wanted to be the voice of women who didn’t have a voice,” Pam Sherman said, who plays Bombeck in ‘At Wit’s End.’
Before she knew it, Bombeck’s hilarious column was appearing in 900 newspapers across the country, getting read by about 30 million people.
“(It was) just an amazing span of a career, that started from an ironing board, with a typewriter in Dayton Ohio, as a housewife with three kids she was trying to raise with her husband Bill.”
It’s a story of inspiration: how to take a dream and follow it through. And it’s a similar story to that of Sherman herself.
“From the second grade on, I used to play piano with the door wide open, hoping that a wandering talent agent would hear me sing, and cast me on Broadway,” Sherman said. “But I came from a traditional family and went to law school.”
Sherman became a lawyer, but at age 37, the law firm she was working at shut down. Instead of looking for a new job, she decided to change careers.
She became that actress she always wanted to be.
“Being able to tell that story, that you can basically pursue your dreams at any stage, at any age, I think spans from young audiences, all the way to those moms and grandmothers who use to cut out Erma’s columns and hand them to their family and say, ‘you need to read this.'”
Oh… and Sherman is also a columnist in her hometown of Rochester.
She said the play is an hour long and will make you laugh, and leave you inspired. It comes to the Shea’s 710 Theater for six shows, starting on November 5th. For tickets, click here.
The original source can be found here: WIVB Buffalo