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During her too-short life, Wendy Wasserstein wrote everything from TV movies to essays and lectures. But she was best known, and best loved, for her stage work.
Here is a brief look at the plays that made Wasserstein as popular as she was prolific:
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Uncommon Women and Others.
Originally produced at New York's Phoenix Theatre and later filmed for public television, this look at a group of female college friends reuniting seven years after graduation introduced the kind of generational and gender-related concerns that Wasserstein would confront again and again throughout her career.
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Isn't It Romantic.
A tale of a young woman in New York produced at Playwrights Horizons under the direction of Andre Bishop. He also would team with Wasserstein for the company's productions of her musical Miami and The Heidi Chronicles, then continue working with her at Lincoln Center.
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The Heidi Chronicles.
Wasserstein's Tony and Pulitzer award winner, and the show that made Broadway safe for post-'60s feminism -- or vice versa, depending on whom you ask.
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The Sisters Rosensweig.
A trio of Jewish-American siblings who have pursued very different paths -- one as a banker, another as a travel writer, a third as a radio shrink -- gather to celebrate the eldest's birthday at her London home. Any similarities to Chekhov's Three Sisters are purely accidental.
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An American Daughter.
In Wasserstein's last full-length play to be produced on Broadway (in 1997), a successful female doctor is tapped to become the U.S. surgeon general, and a lot of drama ensues. Any similarities to unsuccessful Clinton-era attorney-general nominees Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood and Lani Guinier probably are not accidental.
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Old Money.
Two families, separated by a century but bound by a fabulous spread on New York's Upper East Side and some very familiar problems, are the focus in this study of the old rich and the nouveau riche and what they and the rest of us have in common.
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Third.
Wasserstein's final play to be produced was full of references to everything from King Lear to the war in Iraq. Set in our decidedly post-Elizabethan world, it involves a defiantly liberal college professor who suspects a student of plagiarism. The student, purely by coincidence, is the conservative scion of an established family (we think) and would rather talk sports than Shakespeare. Any similarities to the man giving the State of the Union address tonight are ... well, let's just say that both characters end up cutting each other some slack before the play is over. A poignant, generous swan song.
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