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or Wendy Wasserstein,
theater has become
something of a family
affair.
Family is a familiar theme
for the writer, whether
focusing on fictional
relatives (the young single
Jewish woman trying to
escape the claustrophobic
clutch of her parents, who
wish her wed, in Isn't It
Romantic? or a closely knit
family of feisty friends (the
yuppie-ish best buddies of
the Pulitzer Prize-winning
play The Heidi Chronicles).
The award-winning
writer's latest project is a
kissing cousin to her other
works. Yet, at the same
time, the two are distantly
related.
The Sisters Rosensweig
who share the spotlight and
applause nights and days on
stage at the Ethel Bar-
rymore Theatre here are
Jewish stars in their own
constellations: Sara is a
celebrated banker; Pfeni, an
accomplished writer;
Gorgeous, a happily married
wife/mother and sisterhood
tour guide who has found
new prominence as a broad-
cast personality.
But beneath the surface is
the winter — and spring,
summer and fall — of their
discontent, as they attempt
to travel the road to life's
happiness without always
bumping into its obstacles.
Wendy Wasserstein's The
Sisters Rosensweig explores
the relative nature of hap-
piness among this trio of
women who, despite
cherished triumphs in their
careers, seek escape routes
from their more perplexing
personal lives, where men
have proved to be miserable
mysteries.
Success does not elude Ms.
Wassersstein. With
memories of receiving her
Pulitzer Prize for Heidi
Chronicles still fresh and
vibrant, Wendy Wasserss-
tein continues to chronicle
the vulnerability of the
human condition in all its
varied stages.
The playwright had a re-
vered source of inspiration
for this Sisters act.
Michael Elkin is entertain-
ment editor of the Jewish Ex-
ponent in Philadelphia.
"Chekhov is my favorite
writer," she says.
Chekhov would have 'felt
at home with the Sisters
Rosensweig — if his home
had been a Jewish one.
Wendy Wasserstein has
been told that her three
sisters could pull up chairs
at the table and share a
Sunday dinner with
Chekhov's Three Sisters and
all would go home feasting
on life's little riches.
Ms. Wasserstein doesn't
necessarily need such com-
parisons — as nice as they
are — for nourishment. The
accomplished 42-year-old
playwright from New York
is no new face in a crowd.
Indeed, the playwright has
a ticket to ride these days,
which is more than some of
her fans have: The Sisters
Rosensweig is one of the hot-
test tickets on Broadway.
"I feel very lucky to have
such a career," she says.
Originally, the bright
lights of Broadway didn't
beckon as much as the
flashing "Sale" signs at a
nearby department store.
While a student majoring in
intellectual history at
Mount Holyoke College,
Wendy Wasserstein took a
major detour one summer,
taking courses in playwright-
ing at Smith College at a
friend's suggestion.
"Afterward," advised the
friend, "we can shop."
Theater has been a spree
ever since with Ms. Wassers-
tein's first New York play,
Uncommon Women and
Others, finding an un-
commonly welcome recep-
tion by critics and audiences
alike in 1977.
With all the changes the
playwright has gone
through over the years —
switching career objectives,
losing 40 pounds in the past
two years — the writing re-
mains consistently accla-
imed.
Often, as was the case with
Isn't it Romantic? and is the
case with her current
Broadway production, the
wry Wasserstein wit is
flavored with a Jewish sen-
sibility.
The sisters on stage at the
Barrymore are not Jews in
name only; Judaism and
Jewish culture are topics of
conversation, with some
Wendy Wasserstein:
A sister act.
characters accepting, others
dismissing.
"There are different kinds
of Judaism represented on
stage," says Ms. Wassers-
tein, with Sara the banker
rating the most interest
among the sisters. She is
"the self-hating Jew," notes
the playwright, one who
shuns her religion as if it
were a demanding creditor,
always knocking at her soul
when she would rather shut
out the sounds of her past.
Sara's intellect overrides
her emotions, and she views
religion as a ritualistic
anachronism.
Perhaps the most craftily
and cunningly etched Jew-
ish character is not a mem-
ber of the Rosensweig family
at all. He is an outsider,
warming up to the iceberg of
a woman that Sara has
become after two unsuc-
cessful marriages.
Merv, winningly played by
Robert Klein — he just cap-
tured an Outer Critics Circle
Award for his work, one of
four such honors for the play
— is a Zionist whose mission
goes beyond his trips to
Israel: He is intent on bring-
ing Sara back to the world of
the living and loving.
Sisters hits home for the
playwright. "The different
way the people react in the
play to their sense of
Judaism" — Sara denies it;
Gorgeous embraces it — "is
somewhat similar to what I
had in my own home," she
recalls of some unorthodox
practices.
"Like lamb with butter
sauce to the rabbi's chil-