SOURCE: "Prize Problems: 'Chronicles' & 'Cocktail Hour'," in Commonweal, Vol. CXVI, No. 9, May 5, 1989, pp. 279-80.

An American novelist and drama critic, Weales is the author of such books as American Drama since World War II (1962) and The Jumping-Off Place: American Drama in the 1960s (1969). In the following excerpt from a review of a Broadway performance of The Heidi Chronicles, he comments on the play's major weaknesses, particularly centering on the character of Heidi, whom he considers both unconvincing and lacking in dramatic interest.

Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles began as a workshop production at the Seattle Repertory Theatre; then, shepherded by the Seattle Rep's Daniel Sullivan, it moved to a well-received off-Broadway debut and then to Broadway; it has now been blessed by the Pulitzer Prize committee. It is a typical American-theater success story of the 1980s, but I have trouble working up much enthusiasm for its triumphant journey...