Wasserstein’s ‘Heidi Chronicles’ a Hit in N.Y.

The hit signals have gone off in New York about “The Heidi Chronicles.” Wendy Wasserstein’s new comedy opened at Playwrights’ Horizons on Sunday night, to reviewer delight.

Wasserstein’s subject is the same as in her first two plays, “Uncommon Women” and “Isn’t It Romantic”--the perplexities of being a bright, liberated woman whose life isn’t falling into place as planned. Many other playwrights have also addressed this theme. Said Newsday’s Linda Winer of “Heidi”: “Somebody finally got it right.”

Wasserstein takes her heroine, Heidi Holland (Joan Allen), from the liberated ‘60s to the neotraditional ‘80s, leaving her both buffeted by the paradoxes of freedom and convinced that women truly are getting it together.

Mel Gussow of the New York Times: “Heidi’s search for self is both mirthful and touching. Ms. Wasserstein has always been a clever writer of comedy. This time she has been exceedingly watchful about not settling for easy laughter, and the result is a more penetrating play.”

Howard Kissell of the Daily News praised Wasserstein for reproducing “the inanities and glibness of the last 20 years with a shrewd eye, but without resorting to caricature.”

Richard Hummler of Variety called the play “a comedy that’s both hilarious and illuminating on the subject of women’s social and emotional history over the last 25 years. B.O. outlook is big.”

Box office, that is. The show’s press representative reports that every producer on Broadway wants to get hold of “Heidi” once it closes at Playwrights Horizons Feb. 26.

Feminists may not be so crazy about “Heidi” as the mainline critics. Alisa Solomon in the Village Voice: “The play assures us that modern, intelligent women are funny for the same traditional reason that women have always been funny: They hate their bodies, can’t find a man and won’t believe in themselves. Its vision of feminism, like its dramaturgy, is entirely bourgeois.”

Kultur Chronik, the Federal Republic of German’s arts magazine, reports on a Bonn production of Anthony Burgess’ “Clockwork Orange,” based on Burgess’ own 1983 script. This version featured a Dusseldorf rock group, Die Toten Hosen (Dead Trousers). The band apparently made more of an impact than the play.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK. A press release from the University of Arizona: “Imagine talking to William Shakespeare today. Would he be hip?”