Success and its Limits: Mary O’Malley, Wendy Wasserstein, Nell Dunn, Beth Henley, Catherine Hayes, Marsha Norman

Abstract

Success in the theatre is most often measured by box-office receipts. The relationship of feminist drama to commerce and public attention in many ways follows a predictable pattern. While some of the most innovative and challenging plays by feminists are produced in obscure venues and are heralded by a relatively small group of supporters, the dramas by women that have achieved commercial success in the West End or Broadway tend to take fewer theatrical risks and to be less threatening to middle-class audiences than those performed on the fringe of the theatre establishment. Whether this pattern will continue is not yet clear, although it is increasingly apparent that feminist scripts are more subversive than the productions in which they are rendered in the large, commercial theatres.