SOURCE: "Broadway Inches Forward," in The New Republic, Vol. 185, No. 3493, 23 December 1981, pp. 25-7.

Brustein offers a lukewarm evaluation of Crimes of the Heart, maintaining that while the play is whimsical and likable, it is "unlikely to survive as anything more than a stock company favorite."

After years of being out of service, serious American dramas are running again on commercial highways normally restricted to musicals, light comedies, and British imports. Few of these are original Broadway manufactures; almost all are products of the resident theaters. If the customary route for such plays in the past was via the Public Theater or the Mark Taper Forum, however, now their pit stop is more likely to be the Manhattan Theater Club or the Circle Rep, occasionally after early tune-ups at the Actors Theater in Louisville. Still, it is cheering to see some native models tooling around our popular stages again...