Lolita Marie, left, and Susan Marie Rhea in Wendy Wasserstein’s “An American Daughter.” (Cameron Whitman)
“An American Daughter” is a Clinton play, and the Keegan Theatre is extremely smart to be performing it right now…. The fury is as clear as I’ve ever seen it.
Obviously a driving issue for Wasserstein was whether the bar is different for women as the public — or the media and the political barracudas, anyway — vets nominees and candidates. As Lyssa puts on the famous Hillary headband for her own damage-control interview, adopting a role as she gives in to the political charade, the hazards are raised anew of the “woman card,” as it is being shorthanded for the current political cycle.
Standouts in the swirl of outsize figures include Brianna Letourneau (who nails Quincy’s cheerful narcissistic post-feminism) and Lolita Marie (a noble yet human Judith). Best of all, though, are the encounters between Rhea’s Lyssa and the nimble Timber Tucker as played by Michael Innocenti. Tucker has come to do a puff piece on Lyssa, but it takes a turn when grandstander Morrow crows that Lyssa once skated out of jury duty.
Well, okay, she did — it was an oversight, not a symbol of liberal elitist hypocrisy. But who cares? The puff piece blows up, with Rhea and Innocenti aggressively carving into each other as the cameras roll.
… it’s excellent to have these two Georgetown-set dramas just months apart. Watching how Wasserstein’s prating pundits and too-cagey pols gleefully choose to squabble about everything but the direction of the nation’s health care is enough to make you mad as hell.
