An American Daughter, the new play by Pulitzer-winner Wendy Wasserstein, began Broadway previews March 20 at the Cort Theatre. The show, by the author of The Heidi Chronicles and The Sisters Rosensweig, opens April 13.
Produced by Lincoln Center's Andre Bishop and Bernard Gersten, the play concerns a doctor nominated for U.S. Surgeon General, but when a minor infraction involving jury duty snowballs into a media circus, her political life is shattered. The situation somewhat resembles the story of real-life Attorney General nominee Zoe Baird.
Kate Nelligan stars as a prominent professor and daughter of a prominent Senator, played by Hal Holbrook. Peter Riegert will play Nelligan's husband, and Lynne Thigpen her best friend.
Also in the cast are Peter Benson, Penny Fuller, Elizabeth Marvel (as Quincy Quince, feminist writer), Cotter Smith (as newsman Timber Tucker), and Bruce Norris (as a young, conservative, gay editor).
Rehearsals began Feb. 12, under the direction of Daniel Sullivan, who helmed Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig and her Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Heidi Chronicles. Nelligan's Broadway roles include Spoils Of War, Serious Money and Plenty -- all Tony-nominated. Holbrook won the Tony Award for Mark Twain Tonight! and appeared on Broadway in Death Of A Salesman and The Apple Tree. He was a member of Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre from 1963-65. Riegert's Broadway credits include The Nerd and Censored Scenes From King Kong. Thigpen appeared in Fences, Working and The Magic Show; Marvel was seen in the recent Taking Sides and N.A.T.'s Seagull and St. Joan.
Wasserstein's drama had its premiere at Seattle Repertory Theatre, May 31-June 2 with Meryl Streep as its star.
Director Sullivan, artistic director of Seattle Rep, has also staged Conversations With My Father and I'm Not Rappaport on Broadway.
Lincoln Center Theatre is presenting two other plays this spring, Craig Lucas' God's Heart, directed by Joe Mantello (currently at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre); and a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, with Stockard Channing (in April at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre).
For tickets ($35-$50) and information on An American Daughter, call (212) 239-6200. Tickets can also be ordered on Playbill On-Line.
An American Daughter is the first Lincoln Center production at the Cort since another political play, Christopher Durang's Sex and Longing, which opened to controversy and mostly negative reviews, and did not extend its subscription run.
