An American Daughter

Tonight I saw The Orange Girls' production of Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter; it was the last of a Wasserstein memorial trifecta in St. Louis this season, beginning with New Jewish Theatre's The Sisters Rosensweig and our The Heidi Chronicles.

These three plays, taken together, can be seen as something of a trilogy. Written over a decade, they're probably Wasserstein's most well-known works. For my money, An American Daughter is the weakest of the three; it was written last and feels a lot like a rehash of the themes, characters and political locales of the preceding two. The story concerns the nomination of a driven, privileged, family-oriented woman to be United States Surgeon General and the media-manufactured scandal that imperils her confirmation. The central question here, as in Heidi and Rosensweig: "Is it possible—or even desirable—for a woman to 'have it all'?"

There are some very good performances in this production, notably Jeff Wright as the conservative gay go-getter, Morrow; Monica Parks as accomplished and conflicted best friend Judith; and the wonderful Mary Schnitzler as the woman at the eye of the storm, Lyssa Dent Hughes. Scott DeBroux's set packs a lot of living room into the COCA black box, and Brian Beracha's sound design along with Daniel Lanier's lights complement it nicely.

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