Product Details

• Actors: Jill Eikenberry, Ann McDonough, Alma Cuervo, Ellen Parker, Swoosie Kurtz
• Directors: Merrily Mossman, Steven Robman
• Writers: Wendy Wasserstein
• Producers: Ann Blumenthal, Jac Venza, Phylis Geller
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: May 14, 2002
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000067IYO
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,690 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Musicals & Performing Arts > Broadway > Broadway Theatre Archive

• For more information about "Uncommon Women and Others (Broadway Theatre Archive)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This item is part of The Broadway Theatre Archive Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Playwright Wendy Wasserstein's acclaimed debut, Uncommon Women and Others, rings with uncommon truth and insight into common human foibles. That's what makes this 1978 television production--as presented by New York's Phoenix Theater--so universally appealing, even if its characters aren't always easy to like. Framed by a present-day luncheon between old friends, the autobiographical play flashes back to 1971, their senior year at Mount Holyoke College, where young women are groomed for "Gracious Living" and high expectations. This distaff Ivy League prompts an abundance of lively introspection from the classmates, including Rita (Swoosie Kurtz), the aspiring novelist who'll never write a novel; Leilah (Meryl Streep), tentatively devoted to a humanitarian future; and Holly (Alma Cuervo), whose identity is troublesomely elusive. This amazing ensemble captures the essence of seven diverse characters, wrapping them in humor, sarcasm, and keenly observant compassion. In Wasserstein's view, these seemingly common women are ultimately unique, after all. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein's first play. A t a reunion seven years after their graduation from Mount Holyoke College, five former classmat es assess whether they have achieved their youthful goals. In a flashback, the women, all part of a group dubbed "uncommon"--because they were expected to be "amazing" before they reached 30 --relive their senior year and examine the influences that shaped them. "A remarkable first pla y by Wendy Wasserstein." --The New York Post. With Meryl Streep, Jill Eikenberry, Swoos ie Kurtz, Ann McDonough, and Alma Cuervo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I feel as if I'm under-articulating.", February 12, 2005

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Wendy Wasserstein's debut play, directed by Merrily Mossman and Steven Robman, is brought to hilarious life in this finely cast production starring Swoosie Kurtz, Jill Eikenberry, and Meryl Streep. Setting the play in 1970 at Mount Holyoke College, Wasserstein focuses on six young women who are about to graduate and go out into a world newly sensitized to feminist goals. Caught between traditional values of home, hearth, and finding a husband, and sexual liberation, women's liberation, and personal liberation, these women are on the cusp of a whole new way of life. The play opens a few years after graduation as the women meet to reminisce about their lives in college, where "milk-and-crackers" teas and "gracious living" have dominated.

Filmed on location, the play dramatically illustrates every aspect of life in a women's college in 1970. An Emily Dickinson-reading "housemother" works to make these students into "ladies" while they explore options never before open to them. Both sympathetic and satiric, the author also includes discussions of Women's History courses, snapshots of Father-Daughter Weekend, and interactions among the various women as they explore who they are and who they will become. Swoosie Kurtz, as Rita, is the dominant figure in the action, a promiscuous and iconoclastic woman who wants to write the great American novel and who refuses to bend to convention.

In contrast to her is Streep, playing a minor role as Leilah, a shy student who plans to study anthropology in Iraq after graduation. Other characters include Jill Eikenberry, as Kate, who plans to attend law school; Ann McDonough as Samantha, who is in love and believes her primary role is to be as wife and mother; Alma Cuervo as Holly Kaplan, who is not sure what she wants her role to be; and Ellen Parker as Muffet, who becomes "partly liberated" but has yet to define her ultimate goals. Throughout the play, the voice of Anthony Scourby narrates a promotional film for the college, illustrating the gap between what is real (as we see it onstage) and what is ideal (as we hear the college PR).

Wonderfully poignant pictures of the social, sexual, and personal conflicts faced by these bright students in 1970 evolve as the students fumblingly make the transition between traditional expectations and unlimited possibilities. The humor is broad but to the point, and anyone who has attended a similar college in the same time period will identify with the conflicts experienced by these "uncommon women" on the cusp of true "liberation." Mary Whipple

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb, March 17, 2006

By	H. Goldman "hgoldman77" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A play that takes you into the distorted world of a women's college, circa 1970, but still relevant to today in its main themes...Although the language has been somewhat cleaned up - the F word edited out, among others - it's a wonderfully fast excursion into the wit and mind of the beloved Wendy Wasserstein, and one not to be missed...Think of it as what Seinfeld would have looked like without men, and then add large doses of richly observed and well-acted scenes from a young and brilliant Meryl Streep, and a fresh Jill Eikenberry, and a fabulously lithe Swoosie Kurtz, nicely shot to give you its sense of being a play for the stage...H

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still resonant after all these years, April 24, 2006

By	Charles Paul Hoffman (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I caught this on PBS this weekend and was quite impressed. Despite its *very* dated appearance, it drew me in immediately with its wit - it made me sad again at Wendy Wasserstein's untimely death. But it was not just funny - the characters felt real and you could sympathize with their ambitions and ultimately their unfulfilled desires. I would recommend to any fan of Wasserstein, esp. as this is probably the only chance you will get to actually see the play performed.

Incidentally, I noticed in my copy of the play (published with The Heidi Chronicles) that the PBS version was all of the original cast, except Meryl Streep's role was originally performed on stage by Glenn Close.