A WOMAN UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Wendy Wasserstein’s political comedy
remains disturbingly current nearly three
decades after its Broadway premiere

How fitting that La Femme Theatre Productions, an Off-Broadway company dedicated to exploring and celebrating the universal female experience, should revive Wendy Wasserstein’s An American Daughter. Nearly three decades after its Broadway premiere, Wasserstein’s 1997 play feels less like a period piece than a dispatch from the present. Its examination of women, ambition, politics, friendship, family, and the punishing standards imposed on women in public life is remarkably undiminished by time. And that is perhaps the most striking thing about this handsome revival: the playwright’s voice remains the star.

Wasserstein, whose The Heidi Chronicles won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, also gave us The Sisters Rosensweig and Isn’t It Romantic. Her particular gift was to combine political observation with intimate family drama, creating characters who could be funny, complicated, vulnerable, and sharply defined, sometimes all within the same scene. In An American Daughter, she does exactly that, populating the play with nine vividly drawn characters whose conflicts are both personal and political.

Running two and a half hours with intermission, the production inevitably reminded me of how much we lost when Wasserstein died of cancer in 2006 at just 55 years old. Watching this revival, I found myself wondering about the plays we might have had if she had been given the opportunity to live and write for another twenty or thirty years. I can only imagine her condemnation of politics today.

Director Sarna Lapine has assembled a polished production worthy of the material. She has expertly guided the design team toward a visual world that complements Wasserstein’s writing. Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’ set design, enhanced by Kathy Fabian’s props, establishes the domestic and political environments with equal confidence. Donna Zakowska’s costumes, Alan C. Edwards’ lovely lighting, and Darron L. West’s sound design further contribute to a production that is consistently attractive and thoughtfully realized.

At the center of the story is Lyssa Dent Hughes (Jan Lichty), a highly accomplished physician nominated by the sitting president to become the next U.S. Surgeon General. During a national television interview, a supposed friend casually reveals that Hughes ignored a jury-duty summons. What might ordinarily be an insignificant personal indiscretion quickly becomes a media feeding frenzy, threatening to destroy her reputation and derail her dream of serving the country.

Wasserstein understood precisely how such a scandal could become larger than the woman at its center. She exposes the double standards applied to women in public life and society’s persistent suspicion of women who are ambitious, accomplished, and unwilling to apologize for their success. The uncomfortable truth is that very little of this material feels dated. If anything, the play’s premise has acquired an additional resonance with the passage of time.

My principal reservation about the production is its casting. Hughes’ closest friend, Judith B. Kaufman, is played by the competent Montego Glover. The women are lifelong friends who met in high school, yet the two performers appear to be at least ten or fifteen years apart in age. More significantly, Judith is written as biracial, with one Black parent and one Jewish parent. My theater companion shares that identical heritage and felt that the casting did not fully reflect the specific identity Wasserstein gave the character. It is a small but meaningful detail, particularly in a play so concerned with identity, representation, and the assumptions society makes about women.

Lichty’s performance as Hughes also presented a challenge for me. She often appeared physically and vocally stilted, as though she had not quite settled comfortably into the character’s skin. That disconnect made me more conscious of the performer than of the woman she was portraying. The difficulty became more apparent because she was surrounded by a remarkably assured supporting cast, all of whom inhabited their roles with ease, competence, and honesty: Robert Sean Leonard (as Hughes’ husband, Walter Abrahmson), Dakin Matthews (as her senator father), and Mary Beth Peil (as her stepmother). The actors playing the characters we are perhaps least inclined to forgive are equally effective: Ryan Spahn (the gay conservative, Morrow McCarthy) and Carmen Zilles (the young and successful feminist, Quincy Quince, who adds another layer to Wasserstein’s examination of women and power). Chris Ghaffari as the reporter Timber Tucker and Will Devary as Billy Robbins round out the ensemble.

But the production’s imperfections ultimately do little to diminish its greatest asset: Wendy Wasserstein’s writing. Following the Broadway production, Wasserstein revised the second act for a Chicago production and again for the 2000 television adaptation, also known by the alternative title Trial by Media. This revival marks the first time those revisions have been incorporated into a New York stage production, overseen by André Bishop, Wasserstein’s close friend and co-executor of her estate and the former artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, where many of her plays originally premiered.

That history gives this revival an importance beyond the quality of the production itself. As the first New York revival of An American Daughter, La Femme Theatre Productions is also giving New York audiences their first opportunity to see Wasserstein’s revised version onstage.

Funny without being frivolous, political without becoming didactic, and deeply compassionate without ever surrendering its bite, Wasserstein’s writing still lands. For that reason alone, this revival deserves commendation, offering audiences an opportunity to hear Wasserstein’s voice again and to be reminded just how much we lost when her voice was silenced far too soon.

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photos by Joan Marcus

An American Daughter
La Femme Theatre Productions
The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St.
Tue.–Sat. 7; Sat.–Sun. 2
2 hours and 30 minutes, with intermission
ends on September 20, 2026
for tickets, visit La Femme Theatre Productions

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