Wendy Wasserstein’s Legacy

“In a sense, Wasserstein made Broadway safe for feminism, in a wave of women dramatists (Beth Henley, Marsha Norman, Tina Howe) who cracked the male-dominated repertoire of Broadway and regional theater in the 1980s. Ms. Wasserstein’s penchant for writing appealing romantic comedies made her work more commercially viable than that of most of her peers. And while clearly expressing a belief in equal rights, she was just as focused on depicting a post-feminist ambivalence many women in her audiences shared.”