Farewell to the Tooth Fairy has been a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for three years running. The show was originally presented in January, 2006 at the Spindrift Theater in Pacifica and at La Honda House to great audience acclaim. It enjoyed success as part of San Francisco’s Footloose Summer Festival and has an open-ended run in San Francisco’s Off-Market Theater.

Lynn Ruth’s journey of self-discovery is one each of us must take before we accept who we are and begin to enjoy the role we have chosen as our personal destiny. Each story is an inspiration and a chuckle about the immense variety of flavors that life has to offer.

Edinburgh Evening News
Mon 21 Aug 2006

Farewell to the Tooth Fairy

Barry Gordon

"For those of you who don't know, Lynn Ruth Miller - the writer and star of this one-woman show about everyone's power to create their own destiny and how to discover enchantment in life - is a 72-year-old writer from America.

For more than 40 years she has entertained her readers with flavoursome books about feminist issues, her ethnic flavour, and the idiosyncrasies of life. So this show basically reads like one of her books, told Jackanory-style. 

All the stories are stapled together from Miller's acclaimed collection of columns that originally appeared in the Pacifica Tribune. Kicking off with a description of the challenges bridging two cultures at the turn of the 20th century, the theme changes with a tale about the results of idolising Eleanor Roosevelt. The title story, 'Farewell To The Tooth Fairy,' is a heart-warming and touching revelation about what creates magic for us all.

But it's Miller's account about Junior, the dog who hated men, that seemed to have the audience laughing in all the right places.

A highly likeable performer, Miller's regression to that of a younger woman is both charismatic and engaging. Her enthusiasm and natural charm makes 50 minutes sitting in her company a pleasure and never a chore.

Farewell to the Tooth Fairy might be aimed at people of a certain age, however, anyone who can appreciate old-fashioned romance, the bittersweet taste of childhood memories, and what it was like living in times simpler than today will also treasure this warm, loveable show".

EXTRA! EXTRA!

22nd August 2006

From the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

A.E. Watterson

C Cubed

"When 72-year old Lynn Ruth Miller peeked out from behind the curtain, the twin discs of her hazel eyes and over-sized pearl earrings shining under the stage lights, I started to smile and didn't stop for a good few hours later. To say 'Farewell to the Tooth Fairy' has the feel-good factor would be like saying that Ulysses is a book about a man called Leopold. This woman is a quite extraordinary creature, moving around the stage as she tells a series of ten stories about her life. A writer for over forty years, she has selected the stories she tells here from her columns, 'Thoughts while walking the dog' for the Pacifica Tribune. She is undoubtedly one of the most natural storytellers I have ever come across, and her enthusiasm for her morality tales is life affirming.

Lynn Ruth begins her stories with her childhood experiences of Judaism and American life and ends with a tale about her Aunt's canary, knocked out by Jack Daniel's and revived by a spell in the oven, by way of her first Valentine's bouquet and a dreamy New Year's Eve date ruined by her vicious dog, and much, much more. She tells them in a tiny converted church on The Royal Mile, with few props; a cerise feather boa, fake flowers, stuffed toys.

It was a joy to listen to her, her enthusiasm for the simplicities and possibilities of life is infectious. Her stories are simple, but don't be fooled, there's magic and a moral in every one. She explores notions of what it is to be an American, immigration, Judaism, beauty myths, all with an exuberant sense of humour. With no eye to hyperbole, her interest in the everyday is akin to Joyce's. Her oratory style is fast and fluid, unrelenting even. In fact, she was so good that I have to resort to clichés (for clichés are only clichés because they are true), I haven't laughed so much in ages! The audience hung on every word and the applause of the twenty-odd people worthy of double that number. As I left, I was thanked by Lynn Ruth for laughing at all the right times but, Lynn Ruth it would have been hard not to. Everyone should see this play, in fact it should be made available on the NHS! Lynn Ruth Miller is a tiny, hilarious, one-woman phenomenon and Farewell to the Tooth Fairy is one of my highlights of this year's Fringe Festival. If you have a chance to see this play, you really must take it; you owe it to your laughter lines!"

Review from EXTRA! EXTRA!

The only online theatrical publication for and by its readers

Pacifica Tribune
January 18, 2006

Farewell to the Toothfairy? Perhaps not so fast ...
Theatre Review by Cyndi Caldwell Entertainment Writer/Critic

"The full house at the PSP Theater last Friday was treated to a vintage-type ambiance plied with some memorable original 
artwork by author Lynn Ruth Miller as she mounted the stage to share a bit of herself with the public at large in her one-
woman show 'Farewell to the Toothfairy.' Farewell? Perhaps not. That lovely yet infamous tooth-snarfer clearly still lives 
just a little in the Lady Miller, as much as she may deny it, because in that charming little ball of passion that is Lynn 
Ruth, the Toothfairy should not have her wings clipped just yet.

Although Miller's collection of stories is about coming to terms with chiIdhood, adolescence and growing older, clearly 
that spark of childlike hopes and dreams is alive and well inside somewhere. Whether or not she is or is not ready to
accept that Tony for best actress is not as important as the collection of messages from her former self that seem 
ever-present in her pocket, always prepared for delivery in a moment's notice. The most prevalent message, in this 
particular bit of theatre seems to be that if we don ~t know who we were, then we cannot know who we are, and Miller 
seems to own a nice little corner of that market.

When she speaks of the adolescent angst experienced while waiting to be crowned as Queen of The Snowballs after 
donning a lovely evening gown stuffed atop in the bust with powder puffs and subsequently witnessing "little mushroom 
clouds of powder" as she danced, it was sure to incite laughter. Or, when she spoke in warm remembrance of enjoying 
'baby coffee' (99 percent milk, I percent coffee) with her grandmother (a.k.a. "bubby"), the only person who would 
speak Yiddish to her, it brought a house full of warm smiles. She remembered to the audience when a very young person 
offered her a senior discount (when she wasn't a senior yet) and wanting to go home and drink a 'tall frosted glass of 
hemlock.'

The appreciative guffaws shamelessly ensued. Someone could definitely relate, which brings to mind the Director of 
this homespun homage. It wasn't difficult to see why Director Lennon Smith agreed to dedicate the last few months 
of her efforts to this production. She worked wonders with her charge, giving it the truth it deserved, and the charm 
of Lynn Ruth's stories appeared to pull at least one heartstring in every audience member. It's truly a shame that this 
production was only running for two nights. Even so, it deserves two thumbs up just for witticism. 

So, Brava for Lynn Ruth Miller and Brava again for 'Farewell to the Toothfairy.'"

Life got interesting at age 50
By age 70, author moved onto comedy club stages; hilarity became the rule

Joan Aragone, CORRESPONDENT

"For Lynn Ruth Miller of Pacifica, life started to get interesting at age 50. She was teaching painting from her Pacifica home, compiling essays from her weekly newspaper column into a book, and celebrating the recent self-publication of her autobiographical novel 'Starving Hearts,' one of several she had written. But the 72-year-old Miller's life really took off when she was 70. That's when she decided to do stand-up comedy; the process of appearing before strangers and trying to make them laugh. After 'killing' audiences in small venues from Napa to Capitola, she has added storytelling to her list of skills.

Her show 'Farewell To The Tooth Fairy,' in which she tells tales from a book of her essays, continues through June in San Francisco, and in August, the show is booked for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Combining stand-up with storytelling while continuing to paint and write, she's packing a month of activities into every day.
'It started when I was making appearances trying to sell my book,' she said in a telephone interview. 'I read from my books, then I started telling jokes, and people started to laugh.'

She signed up for a class at a comedy school in San Francisco, learned some basics and started writing her own material. Soon she was a familiar face in the smaller comedy clubs. Although she said the experience was scary, it was also a tonic.

'Once I started going on the comedy circuit, I found I had more energy and my mind was sharper than it had been for years,' she said. 'It's the best thing that ever happened to me.'
Meanwhile, a Pacifica fan of her book of essays, 'Thoughts While Walking the Dog,' noted her success on the comedy stage, and suggested she perform the essays aloud. Three months of daily rehearsals followed.
'I had to learn a whole new procedure,' Miller said. 'Memorizing the pieces, lighting, cues – it was tremendous.'

'Farewell to the Tooth Fairy' consists of Miller telling from memory 10 charming stories from her book of essays, including the tale of the young child in Toledo who adores her immigrant bubby, despite her mother's insistence that she be 'American;' the time Miller realized she was tone-deaf; the time she received flowers from an unknown admirer, and others.

Through skillful lighting and the use of simple props, like a feather boa, a shawl, a vase of flowers, Miller, in a simple, loose-fitting dress, uses her animated features and energy to bring the stories to life.

'Farewell to the Tooth Fairy' opened in January for a trial week at the Spindrift Theater in Pacifica, where it was a hit. This Sunday, it completes a several-week run at the Off Market Theater in San Francisco and plays Sundays June 4-25 at the Shotwell Studios, 3252 19th St., San Francisco.

In August, Miller takes it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she did her stand-up act, including a 'granny strip-tease' to success last year. In the meantime, she's got several comedy gigs to complete in June and July.

Miller wants to spread the word about the latest show and about her approach to life. 'Is the world ready for show like this? Not edgy? Sweet? I believe the world is,' she said.
'And I want people to know that they can do anything if they set their mind to it,' she said. 'I'm out there. I have learned to not be afraid of anything. And I'm younger than I've ever been in my life.'

At the Edinburgh Festival
28 August, 2006

Farewell to the Tooth Fairy - Lynn Ruth Miller