| The Heidi Chronicles | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Wendy Wasserstein |
| Characters | Heidi Holland Peter Patrone Scoop Rosenbaum Susan Johnston Lisa Jill Fran |
| Date premiered | November 18, 1988 |
| Place premiered | Playwrights Horizons New York City, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | New York, Chicago, Manchester, New Hampshire, Ann Arbor, 1965–1989 |
The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. [1] The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
A workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre was held in April 1988, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, [2] [3] starring Lizbeth MacKay, Caroline Aaron, and Gretchen Corbett. [4]
The play premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on November 18, 1988 and closed on February 19, 1989 after 99 performances. It then transferred to Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre, opening on March 9, 1989 and closing on September 1, 1990, after 622 performances. Both productions were directed by Sullivan. The set design was by Thomas Lynch, costume design by Jennifer von Mayrhauser and lighting design by Pat Collins. The cast starred Joan Allen as Heidi, Boyd Gaines as Peter, and Peter Friedman as Scoop. Sarah Jessica Parker was featured in three small roles off-Broadway; those roles were played by Cynthia Nixon for the Broadway run.
Replacement actors on Broadway included Christine Lahti, Brooke Adams, and Mary McDonnell as Heidi, David Hyde Pierce as Peter, and Tony Shalhoub as Scoop.
Two Broadway Heidis married the actor who played opposite them as Scoop: Joan Allen and Peter Friedman (now divorced) and Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub.
The first major production mounted after Wasserstein's death in January 2006 was at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in August and September 2006, featuring Kate Jennings Grant. [5]
On September 30, 2011, produced by The English Theatre of Rome and directed by Gaby Ford, the play premiered in Italy, at Rome's Teatro dell'Arciliuto near Piazza Navona, to wide acclaim.
A revival [6] began Broadway previews on February 23, 2015, at the Music Box Theatre. The cast featured Elisabeth Moss in the title role, Bryce Pinkham as Peter Patrone and Jason Biggs as Scoop Rosenbaum, directed by Pam MacKinnon. [7] The play opened officially on March 19. [8] [9] The production was originally scheduled to play through August 9, 2015 but closed on May 3 due to low ticket sales. [10] [11]
The plot follows Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than twenty years later.
The play's main themes deal with the changing role of women during this time period, describing both Heidi's ardent feminism during the 1970s and her eventual sense of betrayal during the 1980s.
Though most of the characters are women, there are two important male characters; Peter Patrone, a gay pediatrician who is arguably Heidi's best friend, and Scoop Rosenbaum, a magazine editor who marries and has many affairs, and with whom Heidi has a tense friendship. Heidi meets Scoop at a Eugene McCarthy rally where he tries to woo her with knowledge and wit. She seems unenthused, but she realizes Scoop is a very intelligent, attractive man despite his egotistical ways. Although their romantic relationship is unsuccessful, the chemistry between Scoop and Heidi is undeniable, and they become lifelong friends.
Heidi realizes that remaining unmarried does not mean she cannot be a mother, and she chooses to adopt a child on her own.
The New York Times critic Mel Gussow wrote of the Playwrights Horizon production: "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. This is not to suggest, however, that The Heidi Chronicles is ever lacking in humor." [12]
In 1995, the play was adapted as a television film. It was directed by Paul Bogart and starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Hulce in the leading roles.
| Year | Award ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Won | ||
| Tony Award | Best Play | Won | ||
| Best Actress in a Play | Joan Allen | Nominated | ||
| Best Featured Actor in a Play | Boyd Gaines | Won | ||
| Best Featured Actress in a Play | Joanne Camp | Nominated | ||
| Best Scenic Design of a Play | Thomas Lynch | Nominated | ||
| Best Direction of a Play | Daniel J. Sullivan | Nominated | ||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding New Play | Won | ||
| Outstanding Actor in a Play | Peter Friedman | Won | ||
| Outstanding Actress in a Play | Joan Allen | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Joanne Camp | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Director of a Play | Daniel J. Sullivan | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Set Design | Thomas Lynch | Nominated | ||
| New York Drama Critics' Circle | Best Play | Won | ||
| Year | Award ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Tony Award | Best Actress in a Play | Elisabeth Moss | Nominated |
Thomas Edward Hulce is an American actor and theatre producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film Amadeus (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kroger in Animal House (1978), Larry Buckman in Parenthood (1989), and Quasimodo in Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Hulce's awards include an Emmy Award for The Heidi Chronicles, a 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical as a lead producer for Spring Awakening, an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Amadeus, and four Golden Globe nominations.
Anthony Marc Shalhoub is an American actor. His breakout role was as Antonio Scarpacci on the sitcom Wings from 1991 to 1997. He later starred as Adrian Monk in the USA Network series Monk from 2002 to 2009, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. For his supporting role as Abe Weissman on Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Jason Matthew Biggs is an American actor. The accolades he has received include a Screen Actors Guild Award, alongside nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award and a Satellite Award.
Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles.
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit American Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.
Brooke Adams is an American actress, best known for her film roles in Days of Heaven (1978), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and The Dead Zone (1983).
Uncommon Women and Others (1977), is the first play by noted 20th-century American playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
Elisabeth Singleton Moss is an American actor and producer. The recipient of several accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a nomination for a Tony Award, she was named "Queen of Peak TV" by Vulture in 2017.
The Heidi Chronicles is a 1995 made-for-television drama film by Wendy Wasserstein adapted from her play of the same name. The film premiered on TNT on October 15, 1995.
Julie K. White is an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Little Dog Laughed in 2007. She has also received three other Tony Award nominations for her performances in Airline Highway in 2013, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus in 2019 and POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022. She played Sam Witwicky's mother in Transformers film series (2007-2011).
The Sisters Rosensweig is a play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play focuses on three Jewish-American sisters and their lives. It "broke theatrical ground by concentrating on a non-traditional cast of three middle-aged women." Wasserstein received the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in American Theatre for this play.
Daniel John Sullivan is an American theatre and film director and playwright.
Peter Friedman is an American stage, film, and television actor. He made his Broadway debut in the Eugene O'Neill play The Great God Brown in 1972. His other Broadway credits include roles in The Rules of the Game (1974), Piaf (1981), The Heidi Chronicles (1989), and Twelve Angry Men (2004). He earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nomination for his role as Tateh in Ragtime (1998).
Gerald Gutierrez was an American Tony Award-winning stage director. He was born and died in Brooklyn, New York.
Robert Longbottom is a New York City-based choreographer and director, primarily for theatre and opera.
Dennis Grimaldi is an American theatrical producer, director, and choreographer who has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, television, and on London's West End.
Jennifer von Mayrhauser is an American costume designer who has designed costumes for more than thirty Broadway productions, and is notable for her significant contributions in film, television, and theatre.
Jeff Kready is an American stage performer and has been featured in Broadway musicals. As of July 2024, he’s performing in The Great Gatsby on Broadway and understudies Jeremy Jordan in the title role.
Heidi Ettinger, also known by her former married name Heidi Landesman, is an American theatre producer and set designer. She studied at Occidental College and the Yale School of Drama. She was the first woman to win a Tony Award for set design, which she won for the musical Big River. She has also won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle awards and an Obie Award.
Bryce Allen Pinkham is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in the PBS period drama Mercy Street. On Broadway, he played Monty Navarro in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. For this role, he received nominations for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and a Grammy. He is a Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellow and co-founder of Zara Aina, a not-for-profit children's theater company in Madagascar. He voices Stolas in the adult animated web series Helluva Boss.
