Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Wasserstein, Wendy (Vol. 183) - Stefan Kanfer (review date 7 April 1997)
Wasserstein, Wendy (Vol. 183) - Stefan Kanfer (review date 7 April 1997)
Stefan Kanfer (review date 7 April 1997)
SOURCE: Kanfer, Stefan. “Fiasco on the Potomac.” New Leader 80, no. 6 (7 April 1997): 22-3.
[In the following negative review, Kanfer examines the characters and plot of An American Daughter, pronouncing the play's central conceit as “false.”]
Given the headlines, it becomes increasingly difficult to view Hillary Rodham Clinton as a dupe. Unless, of course, you live in Barbra Streisand's part of Hollywood, where the First Lady has become a classic feminist icon: Woman as Victim. Or you happen to stop by the Cort Theater, where Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter is being performed.
The story begins merrily enough in the opulent, ultra-civilized Georgetown home of the Abrahmsons. The President has just nominated the lady of the house, Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughes (Kate Nelligan), for the post of Surgeon General. Should Congress approve—and she looks like a shoo-in—the...
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- Introduction
- Principal Works
-
Criticism
- Wendy Wasserstein and Esther Cohen (interview date August 1987)
- Gerald Weales (review date 5 May 1989)
- Joanne Kirschner (review date 1990)
- Kate Davy (review date March 1990)
- Helene Keyssar (essay date March 1991)
- Wendy Wasserstein and The Playwright's Art (interview date 9 October 1991)
- Alex Raksin (review date 30 May 1993)
- Sheridan Morley (review date 20 August 1994)
- Stefan Kanfer (review date 7 November 1994)
- Richard Donahue (essay date 22 April 1996)
- Ilene Cooper (review date 1 June 1996)
- Stefan Kanfer (review date 7 April 1997)
- Claudia Barnett (review date December 1997)
- Stephen J. Whitfield (essay date 1997)
- Jan Balakian (essay date 1999)
- David Shengold (review date March 2000)
- Publishers Weekly (review date 23 April 2001)
- Miriam M. Chirico (essay date 2001)
- Further Reading
- Copyright
