The Heidi Chronicles

Written by Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The plot follows Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than twenty years later. The play's main themes deal with the changing role of women during this time period, describing both Heidi's ardent feminism during the 1970s and her eventual sense of betrayal during the 1980s. Though most of the characters are women, there are two important male characters; Peter Patrone, a gay pediatrician who is arguably Heidi's best friend, and Scoop Rosenbaum, a magazine editor who marries and has many affairs, and with whom Heidi has a tense friendship.

It was made into a TV movie in the early 90's starring Jamie Lee Curtis.


 * Babies Ever After - the ending seen is with Heidi and her newly adopted Asian baby
 * Babies Make Everything Better - see above
 * Butch Lesbian - Fran
 * Camp Gay - Peter can be this; it depends on the production, of course but his singing the "Shoop Shoop" song and his rather theatrical diction would seem to lean towards this interpretation
 * Coming Out Story - Peter comes out to Heidi when she's in town protesting an art exhibit.
 * Gayngst - sort of with Peter toward the end of the play. He's understandably pretty angsty about the fact that tons of his friends are dying due to the AIDS crisis, though he himself is not infected.
 * The Eighties
 * Evil Former Friend - not exactly evil, but Susan is a shallow, flighty, self absorbed person who turns her back entirely on her ideals and seems to be the personification of the aspects of feminism that Heidi feel disillusioned with
 * Meaningful Name Scoop is in journalism. Go figure. Lampshaded in that Heidi comments on his ridiculous name when they first meet
 * The Seventies
 * The Sixties
 * Slap Slap Kiss her relationship with Scoop is something like this
 * Southern Belle Scoop's wife Lisa
 * Straw Feminist - Good god everywhere
 * Title Drop - Heidi's friend Susan says something to the affect of "I've missed the Heidi chronicles", meaning that she and Heidi don't talk enough
 * Will They or Won't They? Scoop and Heidi. It ends up with him marrying Lisa
 * Your Cheating Heart Scoop rather indiscreetly cheats on his wife Lisa