La Femme Theatre Productions clearly announces its mission in its name, and unquestionably executive director Jean Lichty hews closely to the purpose. That greatly explains the company’s current revival of An American Daughter.
Wendy Wasserstein’s play tells the tale of Lyssa Dent Hughes, a fifth-generation descendent of Ulysses Grant who’s just been nominated as surgeon general and is here played by—maybe you’ve already guessed—exec director Lichty.
For a bit of history: The play—perhaps best categorized as a dramedy—bowed in Seattle in 1996 and opened on Broadway in 1997, both sightings directed by Daniel Sullivan. The critical response from the mostly male reviewers wasn’t encouraging; the one favorable review from a major critic came from Linda Winer of Newsday. Wasserstein herself pointed this out in the introduction to the published script, acknowledging Winer while noting that the male critics in general dismissed the play as the “rantings of a comedic writer.”
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
The male-female critics split could be and was considered to reflect an unsurprising divided attitude between the genders toward works by women. It was part of a gathering debate as more women playwrights were appearing on and off Broadway during those late 20th century decades. These were women undoubtedly inspired by the feminist movement to further women’s place in the culture as it had not been previously recognized and appreciated.
(Yes, Arthur Miller’s Linda Loman was accepted as true. On the other hand, Tennessee Willliams’ women were sometimes viewed as versions of himself.)
In light of all this, maybe I oughtn’t say that what’s about to unfurl here is another male reviewer joining the men with a more negative than positive take on An American Daughter.
By the time Wasserstein took on the self-assignment, she’d already established herself with hugely entertaining and revealing plays mostly, if not entirely, about women—Uncommon Women and Others and the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning The Heidi Chronicles not the only ones among them. Much of what sparkled among her output was lodged in Wasserstein’s unbounded sense of humor, which is said to have stemmed from her gift for recalling conversations she’d stored in her memory over the years and could spin on. OK, Clare Booth Luce’s The Women was a predecessor along those laugh lines, but now more was wanted. Wasserstein seemed to have picked up cues that she, too, would be advised to commence demonstrating that women are as prone to assume power as men.
So, abracadabra! An American Daughter, in which surgeon general nominee Hughes is not even alone among the potential power-grabbers. Also on hand are Jewish African-American Judith B. Kaufman (scene-stealing Montego Glover), an oncologist, and Quincy Quince (scene-stealing Carmen Zilles) wielding their strengths as well. Not by the way, Quince secures talk-show regularity with her best-seller, The Prisoner of Gender.
Wasserstein sets these women loose and bobbing among calculatedly men of a lesser standing. There’s Hughe’s husband, Walter Abramson (the always worthwhile Robert Sean Leonard), a sociology professor; Timber Tucker (buff, likable Chris Ghaffari), a magazine documentarian on a Lyssa Dent Hughes assignment; and homosexual friend Morrow McCarthy (Ryan Spahn, playing an unusually offensive gay jerk).
The sole man of gravity is Lyssa’s dad, Senator Alan Hughes (the always attention-snaring Dakin Mathews), who doesn’t always agree with his American daughter but believes in her right to the proposed government slot. Also agreeing is Hughes’ fourth wife, Charlotte (Mary Beth Peil), known as Chubby. (Tip to casting directors: Sitting side by side, Matthews and Peil strongly resemble Winston and Clementine Churchill and are therefore ready for the next Churchill play.)
What goes on among this group of Georgetown habitués, directed with knowing hand by Sarna Lapine, as they cross paths and animatedly crisscross Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’s Georgetown living room set? Certainly throughout the first act, Wasserstein unpacks wisecrack after wisecrack, not a one that doesn’t hit the mark for which our wisecrack expert was aiming. Landing them is well done by the cast, with the unfortunate exception of Lichty, who lacks the gravitas and ebullience for her role.
But the first act is the -edy part of this 1997 dramedy. The drama part is stickier as complications must flare for this aspiring woman in a male-oriented government culture. Yes, Lyssa Dent Hughes has to encounter some obstacle that threatens her nomination. Indeed, what happens to it—and what is therefore predictable from early on—is seen by the audience before she does. (Spoiler alert: A jury duty notice is accidentally mentioned.)
More info on the script used here: Evidently, it’s an amalgam of Wasserstein’s drafts (from Chicago supposedly and New York). Of those credited with checking it over is Andre Bishop, who—need it be recalled?—championed Wasserstein at both Playwrights Horizons and Lincoln Center. That the result falls short of the goal can’t be attributed to him or others rather than Wasserstein. (Were she living today, it’d be fascinating to know what she’d do stage-wise with the Roe v. Wade overturning. Surely, she might have taken it on.)
This reviewer’s Wendy Wasserstein theory: As I assessed her works over the years, I always maintained that as good as it was, she was flawed in that she had trouble digging beneath the plot’s surface. I found an explanation when I read Julie Salamon’s Wasserstein biography, Wendy and the Lost Boys.
In that highly recommended book, she reported that the Wasserstein family habitually kept secrets not only from the world but from each other. Was Wasserstein’s penchant to honor secrets the reason for her going so far and then no farther when committedly producing her plays? I’m inclined to answer yes.
An American Daughter opened August 11, 2026, at Signature Center and runs through September 20. Tickets and information: lafemmetheatreproductions.org
