"Isn't It Romantic," an off-Broadway hit in 1983, grew out of her parents' pushy desire to see her married to a good, solid, Jewish doctor or lawyer. Instead, Wasserstein remained single all her life, writing comic essays about her romantic setbacks and jokingly referring to a series of close, long-term male friends as her "husbands."
"The Sisters Rosensweig" was modeled on Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" and on the three Wasserstein sisters. It raised issues of Jewish identity while questioning whether romance can still light up lives that have moved well into middle age. She said the impetus for the 1993 play, which ran 16 months on Broadway, was "to write smart and funny parts for women over 40" because she knew "too many actresses whose career opportunities had diminished because they made the grievous error of growing older."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday February 16, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
Wasserstein obituary -- An obituary of playwright Wendy Wasserstein on Jan. 31 in Section A stated that she dedicated the play "An American Daughter" to columnists Michael Kinsley and Frank Rich. It was dedicated only to Kinsley.
While she earned many glowing reviews, some critics questioned whether she achieved depth along with the laughter and popularity that often come with good comic writing.
"I think Wendy is a very pioneering writer, but because her plays are pleasing, rather well-received and successful, she gets credit for all the wrong things," Bishop, who helped shepherd all of Wasserstein's major plays as artistic director at Playwrights Horizons, then at Lincoln Center Theater, told the Dallas Morning News in 1994. "The very things her plays are about, the seriousness of them, the political nature of them, is not referred to. She's seen as an entertainer."
In her preface to "The Sisters Rosensweig," Wasserstein wrote of the challenge of being funny and serious at the same time: "The trick
As she approached 40, Wasserstein would later write, she had no desire to marry, but longed to love a child of her own. She had almost given up on conceiving through in vitro fertilization, involving onerous injections, but decided after her sister's death that "I was willing to try once more.... It was Sandra's obstinate and heroic determination that made me do it." The essay, "Days of Awe: The Birth of Lucy Jane," told of her daughter's premature birth in 1999, weighing less than 2 pounds, and of the 10-week fight for survival that ensued.
"It was my training in the theater that taught me to show up every day and hope for the best," Wasserstein wrote in the preface to "Shiksa Goddess," which includes the piece.
