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Catherine Cohen Had Hailey Bieber’s Stroke. Now She’s Staging a One-Woman Show About It With Broadway Royalty.
Catherine Cohen has turned a frightening health crisis into an off-Broadway one-woman show, *Broad Strokes*, after suffering a small stroke at 31 and learning she had a hole in her heart that required surgery. The article matters because it shows how a personal medical emergency reshaped Cohen’s creative work, pushing her towards a more narrative, autobiographical stage production rather than her usual mix of cabaret and stand-up. It also highlights how she used humour and performance to process trauma that she says she is still working through.
The show runs at New York’s Lucille Lortel theatre from 14 July to 5 September and includes around six songs, marking Cohen’s off-Broadway debut. She said seeing that Hailey Bieber had experienced the same kind of stroke reassured her that recovery was possible, and she began recording details of her treatment and family reactions on her phone while still in hospital. The piece grew from that material, following an earlier month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe, and sits within a career that has taken Cohen from comedy stages in New York to screen roles in series including *High Maintenance*, *Search Party*, *What We Do in the Shadows* and *Girls5eva*.
In short
- Catherine Cohen made a stroke-inspired off-Broadway show.
- The show turns trauma into autobiographical comedy and music.
- It runs in New York from 14 July to 5 September.
Explained simply
Catherine Cohen is a comedian and actress known for television roles in shows including High Maintenance and Search Party. At age 31, she suffered a small stroke and discovered she had a hole in her heart that required surgery, a serious medical emergency that led her to turn the experience into art.
Following her recovery, Cohen developed a one-woman show called Broad Strokes that combines performance, music and storytelling about her stroke and recovery. The production draws on recordings and observations she made on her phone whilst in hospital and recovering, marking a shift from her usual cabaret and stand-up comedy work.
Learning that Hailey Bieber had experienced a similar stroke helped reassure Cohen about her recovery prospects. She has said she is still working through the experience, and the show represents her way of processing what happened to her.