Theresa Rebeck's play Spike Heels, exploring issues of love, gender roles, sex, and sexual harassment, did not receive great reviews when it was initially produced but has since been produced to acclaim all over the country. When the play was first staged in New York in 1992, Rebeck was already known in the New York theatre world for her one-act plays, but Spike Heels was her biggest success to date.

In the world of contemporary American theatre, the most important city is New York. Although many plays have their initial productions in small theatres around the country, it is not until they are produced in New York that they are taken seriously. And as befits New York's central place in theatre, the theatre critics for the city's most influential daily newspaper, the New York Times, have become America's leading theatre critics. Frank Rich, at that time the...