The Heidi Chronicles comes from the prolific pen of playwright/screenwriter Wendy Wasserstein, who also brought us Uncommon Women and Others, Isn't it Romantic, The Sisters Rosensweig, and An American Daughter, as well as teleplays and screenplays. Though it garnered a Tony, the Dramatists Guild Award, and a Pulitzer in the 1988-89 Broadway season, The Heidi Chronicles is Ms. Wasserstein's most static and talky play. Director David Kelso opens it up as much as possible without using implausible artificial movements.
This is a difficult piece to stage for a small theatre. With its 13 scenes and multiple locations, it tries the talents of a set designer. Larry Clapp responds with a simple, nondescript series of walls, trimmed slightly different for each act. Thus, location and setting are effectively established primarily by furnishings and set pieces provided by set dresser Sherrie Colbourn. Peter McGuinness' lighting plot nicely defines various playing areas.
The Heidi Chronicles covers a period of 24 years, beginning with high school, in the life of Heidi Holland and her friends and lovers. Danielle Rhoads has the awesome task of playing Heidi, who is on stage for the entire play. Both acts open with Heidi, a forty-something art historian, lecturing on women in art. Her life had elements of an emotional roller coaster. Rhoads expresses action and reaction effectively with her facial expressions and body language. What's missing is an inner passion expressed through the fine nuances of vocal variety. I yearned to hear Heidi as well as see her.
Marjorie Mae Treger is Susan, from a high school student trying to impress a boy to an highly successful television producer. She ages and matures well, always retaining the Susan spark.
Summer Spence is a joy in three roles. Lucinda Moaney, tasked with four dissimilar parts, fares well, too. Her bossy, no nonsense Fran is to be feared. Her superficial television show host April rings stereotypically true.
Cristyn Chandler handles her two roles charmingly. Becky is drawn with compassion; Denise, who moves from a television local station gofer to Susan's assistant, gives Chandler an opportunity to display her talents even more.
Wendy Wasserstein doesn't paint a particularly complimentary picture of the males in her plays, and Heidi is no exception. Christopher T. Miller is Scoop, a self-assured "little" magazine editor who beds and loves Heidi but marries Lisa because she fits his requirements for a wife. Jason Anderson plays Peter, a gay pediatrician dedicated to his practice and the men in his life as well as an enduring friendship with Heidi.
Volt Francisco is Chris and Mark and Steve and Ray and Waiter. (His waiter has a few looks that would get him fired in a nanosecond.)
Terri Brown and Chrissy Burns' costumes effectively define the various periods, from 1965 to 1989, as well as each character. David Kelso's sound design meets the exacting requirements of Ms. Wasserstein's script.
