Review Roundup: AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER Opens Off-Broadway

La Femme Theatre Productions' revival of Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter officially opened tonight, August 11, at The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The production, directed by Sarna Lapine, has already extended its limited engagement through September 20.

The first New York revival of Wasserstein's 1997 play stars Jean Lichty as Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughes alongside Montego Glover, Robert Sean Leonard, Dakin Matthews, Mary Beth Peil, Ryan Spahn and more.

The play follows Lyssa, an accomplished physician and daughter of a prominent U.S. senator, whose nomination for Surgeon General is threatened when a relatively minor personal oversight becomes fodder for a national media frenzy. Nearly 30 years after the play's Broadway premiere, the revival arrives amid renewed conversations about women, political ambition and the scrutiny faced by those seeking public office.

So, what did the critics think? Read the reviews below.

Caroline Cao, New York Theatre Guide: It’s last-minute when Lichty, in stuffy Hillary Clinton-esque couture (costume consultation is by Risa Ando), confidently delivers Lyssa's final epiphany and sheds her performative headband, literal and proverbial. And yet, in An American Daughter's patience-testing 2 hours and 30 minutes, the powder keg never explodes.

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: It doesn’t help that the play has received a sluggish staging by director Sarna Lapine (Call Me Izzy) that makes the evening feel longer than its already stretched-out two-and-a-half hours. Or that the performances are wildly uneven. The younger actors generally don’t come across well, although they’re admittedly hamstrung by their underwritten roles. Leonard is relaxed and appealing as the husband, although his presence often feels extraneous. The standouts are Glover, vibrant and affecting in the role that won Lynne Thigpen a Tony for the original production, and old pros Matthews and Peil, who are delightful every moment they’re onstage.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: What goes on among this group of Georgetown habitués, directed with knowing hand by Sarna Lapine, as they cross paths and animatedly crisscross Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’s Georgetown living room set? Certainly throughout the first act, Wasserstein unpacks wisecrack after wisecrack, not a one that doesn’t hit the mark for which our wisecrack expert was aiming. Landing them is well done by the cast, with the unfortunate exception of Lichty, who lacks the gravitas and ebullience for her role.

Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: Lichty, whose La Femme Theatrical Productions produced this revival, also seems miscast as Lyssa, flat of voice and off-puttingly strident in defense of her own competence. The drama only works if the character builds to her final outburst but Lichty seems to have a chip on her shoulder from the beginning, upset rather than befuddled that anyone would misconstrue her good intentions. Like frosted tips and dial-up internet, An American Daughter emerges as another relic of the ’90s best consigned to that bygone era.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: But the more salient point about Trump’s appointees, both male and female, is that they are utterly unfit for office, while nobody questioned the professional competence of the women Clinton nominated. This makes the core plot of “An American Daughter” feel less than timely.

Average Rating: 48.0%