An American Disaster (minus Robert Sean Leonard)

Next is my review

of An American Daughter. So, here are some notable things about the new Wendy Wasserstein revival that I found genuinely insane. Let’s talk about it!

Robert Sean Leonard was definitely the standout, I thought he was absolutely in

credible! (And obviously, he’s Neil from Dead Poets Society! One of my ABSOLUTE favorite movies). I wanted to see this show as an exploration of politics and how women fit into the modern political landscape. As you know by now, I love political topics, so pairing that with Robert Sean Leonard made this feel like the perfect match for me as I was looking for things to see.

Background

An American Daughter is a play by Wendy Wasserstein about a woman named Lyssa Dent Hughes and her journey as she is nominated for U.S. Surgeon General. Lyssa comes from a conservative family, so her personal politics differ significantly from theirs.

There are a lot of different plot points in this show, but part of the reason I found it so confusing was that they were all completely scattered..There was no linear plot line! As a writer myself, I don't always love linear plots because they can sometimes be weak, but a story still needs some kind of driving line. A plot that just loops and loops forever ends up feeling weird and disjointed.

The Characters & Plot

Here are a few notable characters and plot points from the first act:

Judith Kaufman (played by Tony Winner Montego Glover): Montego Glover was really strong playing Judith, an African American Jewish doctor who specializes in breast cancer research and is dealing with heavy fertility struggles. Her character was super interesting, but I was a little confused about what she actually added to the overall story..maybe she was meant to serve as a foil to Lyssa?

Quincy Quince (played by Carmen Zilles): Yes, the name is completely ridiculous, and I thought it was stupid too lol! Quincy is a student of Lyssa's husband, Walter (Robert Sean Leonard), and she represents a new-age, super modern, "woke" feminism. Lyssa considers herself a massive feminist compared to her conservative parents, but her views align more with second-wave feminism from the 1970s. Now that it’s the 90s, Lyssa and Judith are in their 40s, and when Quincy enters the picture, they suddenly realize they are aging and getting left behind.

My Critiques

There are two main reasons why this production was so mediocre: the acting/interpretation, and the script itself.

First off: Jean Lichty as Lyssa. Honestly, it was the worst acting I have ever seen in my entire life. Terrible, terrible, terrible! She put on this bizarre Midwestern accent that sounded super strange (and eerily similar to my friend's mom, which was just uncanny). Her intonations were wrong, her expressions were awful, and her performance was so wooden. I was sitting there trying to mouth the lines under my breath just to figure out how someone could deliver them better! When you're doing that at a show, you know there's a serious problem as someone who's seen 80+ Broadway shows.

Lyssa is supposed to be a woman in her late 30s or early 40s coming to terms with the double standards for women in politics, but Jean Lichty is 67 years old! (She graduated college in 1981…we literally looked it up during intermission because every single person in the theater was talking about how ridiculous it looked and how bad she was). Even The New York Times called her performance "blank and wooden" and said her “lack of presence deadened her scenes with her castmates”!

I usually say I’ll walk out at intermission if a show is bad enough, and this was definitely bad enough to leave, but I stayed for Act Two just out of pure curiosity to see how it finished.

As for the writing, I think Wendy Wasserstein is just not a very good playwright. I know that’s a controversial take, but this show alone proved it to me. The script was so weak and ridiculous!

The Potomac & Donut Hole Scene

Case in point: Montego Glover’s character, Judith, attempts to drown herself in the Potomac River. She returns to Lyssa’s house right after and delivers this long, dramatic monologue about how, while drowning, she suddenly realizes she's a good swimmer, and suddenly sees a floating box of donut holes in the water. This was not meant to be philosophical or figurative in any way! She literally takes the box out of the river, starts collecting the donut holes, and remembers her mom’s favorite donut shop slogan: "As I ramble through life, whatever be my goal, I will, unfortunately, always keep my eye upon the donut, and not upon the hole." I was SO confused! It was just deeply strange writing. Montego Glover did a great job with the material she was given, but the writing itself was insane.

The Kissing Scene

There’s another painful scene where Quincy Quince is hanging out at Lyssa's house after Lyssa gets interviewed for Surgeon General. Out of nowhere, Quincy tells Walter (Robert Sean Leonard…who is about 30 years older than her AND HER EX PROFESSOR) to "Kiss me." He ignores her at first, but then two or three minutes later, he actually kisses her..until Lyssa, his wife walks in. I dropped my head into my hands from sheer secondhand embarrassment. It was brutal!

Folks, one more, bare with me please…

After Lyssa discovers that her husband cheated on her with Quincy Quince, she then asks her husband to drive Quincy home, and then says to the journalist who is writing a piece to support her for Surgeon General, ”I think Walter has his quince in Quincy."

Excellent and eloquent wordplay am I right?

Even More..

On top of that, this revival tried to combine eight different draft versions of the play, which created massive plot holes and stylistic inconsistencies. Act One dragged on for an hour and a half and felt never-ending! It was so weird that it almost became entertaining.

The Highlights

It wasn't all bad, though!

The Set: Absolutely incredible! It honestly might have been one of the best sets I’ve ever seen. A stunning 90s Washington DC home—THANK YOU Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams!!

The Supporting Cast: The actors playing Lyssa's father, Senator Alan Hughes (Dakin Matthews), and her stepmother, Chubby (Mary Beth Peil), were both excellent. The actor playing Morrow McCarthy (Ryan Spahn)...Lyssa’s gay, conservative best friend, also did a great job. I hated the character because he was written to be completely unlikable, but the actor played it really well!

Overall…

Between the weak script, the bizarre directorial choices, and a central performance that completely deadened the stage, this revival fell completely flat. Robert Sean Leonard, Montego Glover, and an amazing set couldn't save a scatterplot of a play.

Rating: 4/10