The Heidi Chronicles: Uncommon Women and Others & Isn't It Romantic

by Wendy Wasserstein

The graduating seniors of a Seven Sisters college, trying to decide whether to pattern themselves after Katharine Hepburn or Emily Dickinson. Two young women besieged by the demands of mothers, lovers, and careers—not to mention a highly persistent telephone answering machine—as they struggle to have it all. A brilliant feminist art historian trying to keep her bearings and her sense of humor on the elevator ride from the radical sixties to the heartless eighties. Wendy Wasserstein's characters are so funny, so many-sided, and so real that we seem to know them from their Scene One entrances, though the places they go are invariably surprising. And these three plays— Uncommon Women and Others , Isn't It Romantic , and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Heidi Chronicles —manage to engage us heart, mind, and soul on such a deep and lasting level that they are already recognized as classics of the modern theater.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction, Feminism, Humor, 20th Century

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Wendy Wasserstein was an award-winning American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She was the recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Reviews

[Larry Bassett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of three short plays from the 1970s and 1980s is a delightful flashback for me. I will go to my 50th high school class reunion this year. It will be interesting to see how many of us managed to have it all.

A random speech from the first play, Uncommon Women and Others:

HOLLY: What kind of pleasure? There’s someone on top of you sweating and pushing and you’re lying there pretending this is wonderful. That’s not wonderful. That’s masochistic.

Well, this is a feminist play from the 70s! What did you expect?

Here is the description of Holly at the front of the play:

HOLLY KAPLAN: hair disheveled, yet well cut. She wears expensive clothes that don’t quite match, not because she doesn’t know what matches, but because she doesn’t want to try too hard. That would be too embarrassing. A relier for many years on the adage “If she lost twenty pounds, she’s be a very pretty girl, and if she worked, she’d do very well,” Holly has devised a strong moral code of warmth for those you love and wit for those you’re scared of. Holly saw the Radio City Easter Show in second grade and planned to convert.

Andre Bishop writes in the Foreward:

Reading the plays of Wendy Wasserstein is quite different from seeing the plays of Wendy Wasserstein. In the theatre, they are consistently funny; the comedy sparkles. Yet when one sits down to read these three plays, one is surprised, almost overwhelmed, by their seriousness.
It seems to me that Wendy’s plays are ideas that happen to be written as comedies. The three heroines, though vastly different, share an essential sadness, but it is a sadness deflected by humor, because these are witty women and they use their wit to devastating effect.

The thing is: I think maybe I just should have been born Jewish. That way I could have a heritage without having to be religious. I just love these Jewish characters and I loved the Jewish women in the Grace Paley short stories I just read. I must have lived in NYC in a past life. Or maybe I will in a future life!

A random speech from the second play, Isn’t It Romantic:

HARRIET: Mother, do you think it’s possible to be married or live with a man, have a good relationship and children that you share equal responsibility for, build a career, and still read novels, play the piano, have women friends, and swim twice a week?

In the third play, The Heidi Chronicles, Heidi gives a talk to an alumnae group in 1986:

Well, you might be thinking, this is a woman’s meeting, so let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. After teaching at Columbia yesterday, Miss Holland probably attended a low-impact aerobics class with weights, picked up her children from school, took the older one to drawing-with-computers at the Metropolitan, and the younger one to swimming-with-gifted-children. On returning home, she immediately prepared grilled mesquite free-range chicken with balsamic vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes, advised her investment-banker, well-rounded husband on future finances for the City Ballet, put the children to bed, recited the favorite Greek myths and sex-education legends, dashed into the library to call the twenty-two-year-old squash player who is passionately in love with her to say they can only be friends, finished writing ten pages of a new book, took the remains of the mesquite free-range dinner to a church that feeds the homeless, massaged her husband’s feet, and relieved any fears that he “might” be getting old by “doing it” in the kitchen, read forty pages of the Inferno in Italian, took a deep breath, and put out the light. So after all this, we forgive Miss Holland for not preparing a speech today. She’s exemplary and exhausted.

If you are a baby-boomer or a feminist or an over-achiever or simply know someone who is, you might enjoy this quick-read that will give you something to relate to, to remember and to think about for a while. Those were the days. Five stars. One extra for the nostalgia. Winner: 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

[arjeta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich hab das gefühl ich sollte das mögen aber ich tu es irgendwie nicht, 2.5 Sterne aber trotzdem vier von vier screenplays für mein Seminar waren bis jetzt ein flop aber vielleicht ist screenplays lesen auch einfach doof

[Hanako · Rating 4 out of 5]

these plays seem like they would be better (certainly funnier) in person! although they were all joys to read

- uncommon women and others: 7.5/10
- isn't it romantic: 8.5/10
- the heidi chronicles: 7.5/10

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of a good collection is watching a writer's voice develop over time. Reading Uncommon Women, I thought, "This is nice, I guess: kind of like a Seinfeld episode: mildly amusing, with very random characters who talk like people really talk, and nothing actually happens." By Isn't It Romantic, I was thinking, "Well, she's good at capturing a particular historical moment and showing how women think and feel, but she's not actually making me feel anything. She's good, but she's no Jane Austen." But by the time I finished The Heidi Chronicles, I was up to, "Well, damn. I may have to revise my thinking on that Jane Austen thing."

Each of these plays is interesting in its own right, following bright young women of Wasserstein's generation who graduated from the best colleges, filled with feminist ideals about having it all--marriage, kids, and fulfilling careers--only to find themselves in their mid-thirties with little if anything to show for it. Their careers are not as far along as they once dreamed. They struggle with singlehood or with settling for men who secretly want to marry Donna Reed. And despite the professed values of the Feminist Movement, they're beset by the cattiness of other women. Wasserstein's heroines are struggling with the gulf between the ideals of feminism and the realities of life.

The Heidi Chronicles is clearly the star of the collection: the characters feel like people, not stock types, their pain pulls at the heart strings, and the gay character, Peter, gives the play further depth by pointing out to Heidi that women are not the only ones struggling to be seen and respected, and dreams aren't the only things dying in New York in the late 1980s. Wasserstein has captured something very powerful here, and, like Jane Austen, I wish she could have lived longer and had the chance to write much, much more.

[Angelique · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read The Heidi Chronicles, I thought it read flat and couldn't see it at all. But it's one of those play where the more you become acquainted with, the more you like it. It feels like a real theatre students play. It is definitely the strongest of the bunch, but I much prefer 'Isn't it Romantic?', because I like the characters more. Heidi is such a tough nut. They all have the same themes running through them, but man, she can write dialogue like a boss. She's a less wordy waspy Tom Stoppard. 'Uncommon Women and Others' is just, weird. I don't know why it's even a play. But I'm sure once I get more acquainted with it, I'll like it more. A+ form, A- content.

[Jeanette Lukowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an awesome take on the long-view of women's lives!

[Stella Bērziņa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grāmata ar trim Wendy Wasserstein lugām. Ar katru nākamo paliek labāk, beigās ir ļoti labi. Visvairāk domāju par to, ka es un autore varētu būt labas draudzenes.

[Corey Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting snapshot of a writer's constantly-adapting mind.
I struggled mightily with "uncommon women";
I enjoyed "isnt it romantic" a lot, enough to keep reading;
and "the Heidi Chronicles" was one of the best, wittiest, smartest plays I've read.
W.W. had something to say, an honest to God point of view,and seeing her grapple with and hone that perspective over the course of these 3 plays was as interesting a reading experience as I've had of late...

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-read January-March, 2023.

"When we're forty-five, we can be pretty fucking amazing."

Comforted and invigorated by Wasserstein's writing, always.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Heidi Chronicles: Uncommon Women and Others & Isn’t It Romantic by Wendy Wasserstein is a whip-smart, wistful time capsule of what it meant to be a woman clawing her way through the promises—and pitfalls—of feminism from the 1970s to the late ’80s. Through sharp, funny, and often painfully honest dialogue, Wasserstein maps the emotional and intellectual journey of women who were told they could have it all, only to find themselves asking: But what if I don’t want it all? What if I just want something that makes sense?

At the center of this trilogy is Heidi Holland, art historian, feminist, and emotional wanderer, whose story in The Heidi Chronicles becomes an anthem for a generation of women who grew up believing in revolution and ended up arguing over baby showers and NPR tote bags. Uncommon Women and Others offers a younger, brasher view of female friendship and ambition, while Isn’t It Romantic explores the messy, hilarious contradictions of modern relationships and expectations.

Wasserstein’s gift lies in how she blends the bitingly political with the achingly personal—and always with humor.

I read this in 2011, just after finishing a stretch of teaching literature to an all-girls batch—and the girls in those plays felt like girls I knew, loved, and watched figure themselves out in real time. Wasserstein didn’t just write roles—she wrote real. I laughed, winced, nodded. I recognized people. I recognized myself. These plays are funny, feminist, and fiercely humane. They don’t preach. They just ask you to feel, and maybe forgive yourself a little.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had these plays on my shelf for a long time now but I never picked them up. I do think that it was for the best, since the place where I am in my life more closely resembles those of the characters in these plays. I do think that how I felt about these plays was strongly influenced by the place I am in my life.

Uncommon Women and Others - four stars

Isn't It Romantic - five stars

The Heidi Chronicles - three stars

Overall, I really love Wasserstein's snappy writing style and witty dialogue are the biggest strengths of the plays. Something else I enjoyed is that Wasserstein is able to write characters that I find revolting (especially in Isn't It Romantic, all of the supporting characters made me nauseated by how much I hated them, but I could still read the play without getting overly disgusted). The only play that really missed the mark for me was actually The Heidi Chronicles, despite it being the Pulitzer Prize winner. There were bits I enjoyed (especially the first couple of scenes) but the rest didn't resonate with me as strongly as Uncommon Women and Others or Isn't It Romantic.

[Jed L · Rating 1 out of 5]

A play I read for my survey of theatre class, The Heidi Chronicles wasn't my favorite. I felt that it lacked any plot or much depth in character development. It tried to tell a moving story of how a woman grows up through the 60s-80s trying to find a voice for herself, but I struggled to connect with the character at all. It jumped around a lot and was pretty confusing. It won a Pulitzer Prize, but I am not sure why. Probably because it explored new issues and was controversial. And the movie is even worse with Jamie Lee Curtis. Avoid both if you can.

[Bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

These were interesting as snapshots of the 70s and 80s but I did not enjoy the first two (Uncommon Women, Isn't It Romantic) and the third (The Heidi Chronicles) I only somewhat liked. The recent past can seem as alien as centuries ago, which really makes me consider how alien centuries ago really would be if I could only see it clearly.

As with all drama, any or all of these might be 100x better seen upon a stage than read in a book, although it is hard to imagine the first two having resonance with modern audiences -- the problems they are concerned with just aren't the problems most people are facing today. Not that misogyny is over! Misogyny is alive and well, but it looks so different now than it did in the 1970s that I found it very hard to engage with the reality behind these forms.

[Sharon Enright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reread this book in July 2025 for the first time in many years. I was tasked with presenting it to my Berkeley Rep Zoom play reading group. Since our group is all of an age, we commented on how familiar many of the scenes were. It covers 25 years of the early baby boomers adult years--from the college student participating awkwardly in a school dance to the same woman 25 years later adopting a child. In between are many key events of my generation: working for Eugene McCarthy, feminist protests, question of marriage and what kind of woman men want. The play is wonderful, but I wonder if it will speak to a younger generation.

I am so sorry that Wasserstein died in her early 50's. She was a wonderful playwrite, and I would so like to know what she would be writing about our current era. It is a very different--in many ways far more frightening--time.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of three plays is not only entertaining but beautifully capture a segment of the Baby Boomer population – namely, the idealistic, professional women who embraced feminism and tried to make sense of what having it all means. All three plays are excellent, and I say this as someone who is generally lukewarm about the Baby Boomers and their tendency towards narcissistic naval-gazing. Ms. Wasserstein walks a fine line in exploring the issues that concerned her and her compatriots while avoiding self-centered ranting. In a way, the three remind me of a less commercial When Harry Met Sally. Recommended.

[Jim Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some may find this dated, but I think it hoped up really well. I read The Heidi Chronicles when it was first produced and recently listened to the original cast read it again. It made me get down my copy and read it all over.

Makes me yearn to see women equally valued in the world and not forced into predefined roles. Which of course would make it easier for men to be valued for who they are and not the roles they are forced into playing. There is not as much room between Scoop stuck in his successful power broker role and the sad father in Bechdel’s Fun Home abused by himself and abusing others.

Wendy Wasserstein you left far too quickly.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did a live reading of Uncommon Women and then read through the other two plays on my own. I performed a monologue from The Heidi Chronicles when I was in high school, but for the life of me I cannot recall which it was. In any case, the trio is enjoyable to read through -- with plenty of witty and welcome commentary on women in western society. I do wish I could see these in theatre though, especially Heidi Chronicles since I am curious to know if someone would (and if so how) update the technological aspects of the play. For example, there is a reliance on the home answering machine that just doesn't jive with how we live today, but it definitely adds to the ambiance and plot.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wendy Wasserstein was 2 years younger than I. We grew up together, so I grew up in the Heidi Chronicles with twisting, the Beatles, and all the rest. I did not realize that Heidi resolves to finish writing her book while teaching at a college in Northfield, Minnesota. She does not specify which college. There are Carleton and St. Olaf. I was fortunate to teach psychology at the latter for decades - one of the happiest, most fulfilling times of my life. Good luck Heidi. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[Mitchell Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose this playwright is not really for me. Super disjointed, uninteresting, self-satisfied, and very dated. Sprinkled with enough truthful socio-economic commentary that I can see why this could be deemed as important work, but besides a few really great scenes, it’s a whole lot of nothing. The amount of references used throughout every single piece was really difficult to make sense of and dated the work immensely. Not very natural or fluid, but throught-provoking and interesting enough I guess

[Sarah Reckess · Rating 3 out of 5]

These plays are not aging well. Many pop cultural references that the reader has to look up that turn out to not be particularly relevant to the story. Comedies of manners about men and women that are of their time/place. I kept trying to imagine producing this play today and it was a mystery how audiences would respond.

[Peg Reidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must of course for those who attended Mount Holyoke where the author graduated from...The Audible version has an interview with Wendy in the end. It is a great story about growing up a woman from the 60s to the 90s. Much of it holds true today...

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to The Heidi Chronicles performed on audiobook for 2025 reading challenge and loved the snappy dialogue, the piercing cultural references, and the development of these characters over the decades. Enjoyable way to "read" a play.

[Cassandra White · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt a lot of the emotions that Heidi did as I was reading this play. But the final image made it worth it.

[Wen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moments shared made my heart ache. Beautiful.

[Rick Hribko · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it has been a while since I read this, I remember loving her powerful voice.

[Halifax · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. An interesting, easy listen from a baby boomer.

[annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty good! uncommon women and others was my favorite of the plays here but i liked them all. so nice to read something for school that isn't painful to get thru <3

[Emma Grace Stoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wendy Wasserstein is amazing :)

[Madelyn Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent EXCELLENT!!! Beautiful playwriting. I love it. I love this world. And Heidi Chronicles is just out of this world.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am bizarrely offended that Heidi had nothing to do with this.