Playwright Wendy Wasserstein Dies [at age 55. Death caused by obesity??]

Forbes ^ | Jan. 30, 2006 | MICHAEL KUCHWARA

[summer]

Playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who celebrated women confronting feminism, careers, love and motherhood in such works as "The Heidi Chronicles" and "The Sisters Rosensweig," died Monday. She was 55.

Wasserstein, who had been battling cancer in recent months, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Andre Bishop, head of Lincoln Center Theater and Wasserstein's close friend and mentor, said the cause of death was lymphoma.

"She was an extraordinary human being whose work and whose life were extremely intertwined," Bishop said. "She was not unlike the heroines of most of her plays - a strong-minded, independent, serious good person."

Wasserstein's writing was known for its sharp, often wry observations about what women had to do to succeed in a world dominated by men.

In "The Heidi Chronicles," which won the best-play Tony as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1989, its insecure heroine (played by Joan Allen) takes a 20-year journey beginning in the late 1960s and changes her attitudes about herself, men and other women. "The Sisters Rosensweig," which moved from Lincoln Center to Broadway in 1993, concerned three siblings who find strength in themselves and in each other.

Her most recent work, "Third," which ended a New York run Dec. 18, 2005, dealt with a female college professor, played by Dianne Wiest, whose liberal, feminist convictions are put to the test by a student she sees as the epitome of the white male establishment.

In public, Wasserstein was genial, often quite funny, presenting herself as a rumpled observer of the baby-boom generation.

Many of her plays were initially seen at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons and later at Lincoln Center Theater, both run by Bishop.

Wasserstein was first noticed with "Uncommon Women and Others," written as a Yale School of Drama graduate thesis. The one-act play was expanded and done off-Broadway in 1977 with Glenn Close, Jill Eikenberry and Swoosie Kurtz in the cast. A year later, this satire about the anxieties of female college graduates was filmed for public television with Meryl Streep replacing Close.

The playwright continued her off-Broadway success with "Isn't It Romantic?" - about a free spirit who rejects her fiance and tries to find a life as a single woman.

In 1997, Broadway saw "An American Daughter," Wasserstein's story of the political downfall of a perfect career woman, played by Kate Nelligan. It was followed in 2000 by "Old Money," her look at money, manners and morals at the beginning and end of the 20th century, done at Lincoln Center's small Mitzi Newhouse Theater.

While primarily a playwright, Wasserstein also wrote for TV and the movies, most notably the screenplay for the 1998 film version of Stephen McCauley's novel, "The Object of My Affection," about a gay man and a pregnant woman who meet and move in together.

Wasserstein was the author of the best-selling children's book, "Pamela's First Musical" (1996). She also wrote two collections of personal essays, "Bachelor Girls," published in 1990, and "Swhiksa Goddess: Or, How I Spent My Forties" (2001).

At age 48, Wasserstein had a daughter, Lucy Jane, born in 1999, three months prematurely. Despite persistent speculation, she always declined to reveal the identity of the girl's father.

"The thing about having a baby (at an) older (age) is that she doesn't have to live her life for me," Wasserstein said in an interview with the Forward, a Jewish weekly. "I can see her, I hope, as a person."

Born Oct. 18, 1950, Wasserstein, the youngest of four children, grew up first in Brooklyn in what she has called, "a nice, middle-class Jewish family," and later in Manhattan. Her father, Morris, was a textile executive.

She attended Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and then went to Yale University, where she became friends with such budding playwrights as Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato and began her theater career.

"I find myself being more interested in my old friends and in deeper alliances," Wasserstein said in an interview with Time last year. "My 50s are also about being a mother and the joy of my daughter Lucy Jane and about loss. Real loss. My sister Sandra died of breast cancer at 60, so I know about things I didn't know about before. My father died two years ago, and then my friend (director) Gerald Gutierrez died. He was 53. I think if you experience loss, you also on some level try to treasure joy. It can be as simple as going to the ballet or being with your child."

Wasserstein is survived by her daughter Lucy Jane; her mother, Lola; a sister, Georgette Levis; and her brother, Bruce Wasserstein, chairman and chief executive of Lazard LLC. [and owner of NY Magazine]

Funeral services will be private.

[Glenn]

And, I think

No. You don't.

[summer]

You're so kind!

[summer]

Re your post #43 - Very interesting...

[summer]

Re your post #50 - I seem to recall she was never married and perhaps that is why she is a "single" mom, but the article did not give enough details to answer your question any better than what I originally said -- "single mom."

[summer]

Re your post #54 - See the link in my post #8 (and the info in my post #9).

[summer]

RE your post #56 -- see the link in my post #8. I didn't exactly arrive at my headline question without any basis! Though, again, who knows if there is a link or not. However, according to the American Cancer Society, a link does exist between cancer and obesity, so it is not in my imagination, as you imply. Also see my post #9.

[summer]

RE your post #657 -- I am guessing you are talking about the Andrea Dworkin photo. I posted it because her obit seemed so weird -- her cause of death is "unknown" because her "knees" were "weak" and she "fell" a few times? I think the photo may help understand the circumstances of her death, but maybe I am wrong!

[summer]

I meant: re your post #57.

[summer]

re your post #59 - Yes, I agree! :)

[summer]

RE your post #60 -- Yes, to "opportunity" but the bottom line remains this: most women who write a play or even two do not earn a living in that profession. But, she did. She managed to get ALL her plays produced, which is quite an accomplishment (even though a few of her plays would probably have been better left in a drawer). So, she was quite unusual -- and quite a trailblazer -- in that respect.

[summer]

I meant to say: ...women who write two or more plays do not then go on to earn a living at it...

[Alouette]

That is sad. A cousin of mine died last year at age 43 due to complications of genetic obesity. The tragedy of it was that she struggled with her weight her entire life. She was in hospital inpatient programs, starvation diets, extreme regimens. She was not an over eater, if anything she probably ate less than normal people. Her condition was caused by a metabolic disorder.

[summer]

Re posts #45 and #47 -- Maybe there is something to that, about people who fall ill in their 50's, verses those who don't and then live 20 more years.

There were two more obits in the NYT today about women who became ill in their 50's -- one was that Daily News columnist someone else mentioned on this thread, as she was ill for "the last ten years" according to her husband, and just recently died at 64. Then a woman who was a guidance counselor and had been featured in the NYT recently also died, in her 50's, of cancer. (And, BTW, I don't usually read the obits, but seeing all these people in their 50's pass on really caught my eye today!)

Finally, the CEO of an accounting firm died of brain cancer at 53, and a big article was in the NYT Arts section about a book he wrote. A very interesting article about that -- here's an excerpt:

------------

Books of the Times | 'Chasing Daylight': With Just Months Left to Live, a Boss Offers a New Mission Statement: Seize the Day

A good chief executive should be able to deal frankly and effectively with any contingency. Seldom has this been demonstrated more bluntly than it is by "Chasing Daylight," one chief executive's how-to book about the last subject on which he wanted to give advice. After his inoperable brain cancer was diagnosed in May, Eugene O'Kelly, the 53-year-old American chief executive of the accounting firm KPMG, deployed the tactics he knew best. He decided to write a common-sense guidebook on how to die....

The book describes the medical decline that began almost without symptoms, but soon took its toll. Mr. O'Kelly's vision began to dim. His handwriting deteriorated. His ability to complete simple tasks declined, but he remained very much the businessman even in the face of these challenges. Increasingly, needlessly complicated technology infuriated him: "I just wanted to use my phone to call people. Was that too much to ask?" From this same narrowing perspective, he discovered the all-but-new experience of doing only one thing at a time.

In the course of saying goodbye, he would sometimes invite a friend or acquaintance to take a stroll in the park. This "was sometimes not only the final time we would take such a leisurely walk together, but also the first time."

In hard-won retrospect, he wondered what it would take to make healthy people slow down and heed his quotation of Jonathan Swift: "May you live every day of your life." Mr. O'Kelly did his best to echo that benediction.

[Snoopers-868th]

I seem to recall she was never married

If she was never married then let's call it what it is--she is an unwed mom or simply mom. I don't buy into single mom double speak.

[summer]

Uh, I didn't write the obit. Maybe you should complain to the MSM!

[summer]

Sorry to hear about your cousin. My condolences. Very sad.

I often wonder how long these kids today will live, when they are overweight for whatever reason, and getting Type 2 diabetes as children. Very frightening.

[veronica]

I don't see the point of bringing up her weight, for crying out loud. Lance Armstrong had cancer, and he's in prime condition.

[Snoopers-868th]

Uh, I didn't write the obit. Maybe you should complain to the MSM! ________________________________________________________

From Post #1 I am shocked and saddened by Wendy Wasserstein's death, which seems to me a premature death, at the age of 55.

I posted this article about her death because I find it so strange that none of the media is mentioning the word "obesity" in relation to her death, yet, 1 out of every 3 cancer deaths are connected to obesity -- and, she was extremely obese her entire life, as far as I know. I will post some photos of her.

I think the NYT and others do not want to mention the word "obesity" but they perhaps should be. Her death, as a single mom, at age 55, means she is survived by her 7 year old daughter.

Very sad.

Sorry, I thought the above comments were yours.

[summer]

As I already explained to you, I did not write her obit -- the MSM did. Here is an excerpt which I thought I linked to in one of my early posts, from the NYT:

In the play's bittersweet final scene, Heidi has become a single mother to a new infant — a path Ms. Wasserstein would herself choose to pursue many years later, ultimately at great physical cost, when she gave birth to her daughter, Lucy Jane, at age 48 in 1999.

See the phrase "single mother" in the above?

Again, I did not write that, but yes, my comments were written after I read that.

[summer]

Yes, we have discussed such matters ad nauseum on this thread. But, also, see my posts #8 and #9.