An American Daughter Off-Broadway Reviews

Given Lichty’s blank and wooden performance, though, we simply can’t believe in Lyssa or in her relationships. With the exception of the production’s two most veteran actors — Peil and Matthews, who sail through with their characters’ humor...

Given Lichty’s blank and wooden performance, though, we simply can’t believe in Lyssa or in her relationships. With the exception of the production’s two most veteran actors — Peil and Matthews, who sail through with their characters’ humor and humanity intact — Lichty’s nothingness deadens her scenes with her cast mates. As Quincy says of Lyssa, “It’s not good for any of us to watch an established icon being hung out to dry.” Established icon is, in fact, the status Wasserstein reached in the theater before her much too early death. And it isn’t the script here that betrays her.

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'...

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.

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 ac...

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.

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 un...

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.

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...

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.

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 Da...

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.