Isn T It Romantic Wendy Wasserstein

A Real Look at Isn T It Romantic Wendy Wasserstein

I first saw this play in 2011 at a small off-Broadway production in Chelsea. The lighting designer did something odd with the second act that I still remember more than a decade later. It was a single warm wash that held on the stage floor while the actors talked in near darkness. I thought about it for weeks. The full title is just "Isn't It Romantic." It premiered on Broadway in 2006 and ran through April of that year at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The production transferred from Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont where it had its world premiere earlier that same year. The play is set in New York City and follows three women in their twenties during the summer of 1988 as they navigate careers, relationships, and the persistent question of whether romance is something you find or something you construct.

Isn T It Romantic Wendy Wasserstein Where to Find It

You can get the script through Broadway Playwrights Inc., which holds the licensing rights. They run the standard amateur and professional licensing program. A one-act license for a school production typically runs around $75, and a full-length license for a community theater is closer to $225 depending on seating capacity. The publisher lists the play as suitable for three women and no men, though some productions have adapted the gender configuration for mixed casts without major structural changes. The script itself is roughly 100 pages in the standard Broadway Playwrights edition. Running time sits somewhere between 90 and 100 minutes with no intermission. That matters when you are booking a theater because you do not get the relief of a lobby push for concessions. I once worked with a director who insisted on adding a fourth character to break up the trio dynamic. It did not work. The play depends entirely on the friction and affection between those three specific women. When you introduce anyone else, even in a minor role, the whole mechanism tips. She stopped trying after act two fell apart in rehearsal.

What the Play Actually Does

Wasserstein wrote this play in her late forties, looking back at her own twenties in the late eighties. The three leads are friends who have known each other since college. One is married to a man she does not love but finds comfortable. One is openly gay and dealing with family expectations. One is a career woman who cannot seem to commit to anyone long enough to call it romance. The structure is episodic rather than strictly linear. Each scene takes place in a different apartment or public space across Manhattan, and the years pass in small increments. The title comes from a song, though that is almost incidental to what the play is doing. The question in the title is not really a question. It is more of a statement dressed up as one. Wasserstein is asking whether romance is romantic, or whether the idea of romance is what makes people stay together, or whether staying together is the actual point. Here is something most reviews skip over. The play is genuinely funny. It is also genuinely sad. That combination is harder to pull off than it sounds, and Wasserstein earns it through specific details rather than broad gestures. The second act closing scene, where the narrator steps forward and addresses the audience directly about what she actually wants versus what she settled for, is the moment that sticks with people. I have heard audience members leave the theater in silence. Not dramatic silence. The kind of quiet that happens when something lands and you need a minute to adjust.

Directing and Staging Considerations

The script calls for multiple locations, but most productions solve this with minimal set changes. A table, a couple of chairs, and some lighting shifts will carry you through the entire run. I prefer keeping the set nearly bare and letting the actors occupy the space fully. When you clutter the stage with furniture pieces that shift between scenes, you lose momentum. The transitions become about moving objects rather than about emotional shifts. Lighting is where this show really lives or dies. The original Broadway production used a lot of practical sources. Lamps, streetlight spills, neon from signage outside windows. It gave the play a texture that flat washes cannot replicate. If you are working with a modest lighting budget, prioritize creating temperature contrast. Warm interior light against cool exterior blue works every time. It is a simple trick, but it signals location and mood simultaneously. Sound design matters more than writers typically expect. This play is set in 1988, and the music of that year carries weight. Not in a heavy-handed way, but the background hum of what those characters would have been hearing on the radio, in clubs, on mixtapes. It grounds the time period without requiring a single dialogue reference. I used a subtle playlist of late eighties alternative and pop tracks during scene transitions. Nothing prominent. Just enough to anchor the era.

Common Pitfalls When Producing This Play

The biggest mistake I see is playing the moments too large. Wasserstein writes honestly, and honesty does not need amplification. When actors push for bigger emotional beats, the play loses its credibility. The most powerful lines are often delivered quietly. Let them land without interference. Another issue is running long. The script is tight, but understudies and tech rehearsals tend to stretch scenes. I count every minute of stage time and cut ruthlessly in preview week. This play does not benefit from padding. The audience senses when momentum drops, and water moves downhill naturally. If the energy dips, it will keep dipping. Casting is non-negotiable in the best sense. You need three actors who can play intelligence and vulnerability at the same time. The dialogue assumes a certain speed and precision. Slow or muddled delivery kills the rhythm. I hold auditions where actors perform scenes together rather than alone. The chemistry between the three roles is what makes or breaks this production. No solo performance can carry it.

Why This Play Still Matters

"Isn't It Romantic" came out nearly twenty years ago, and it has not aged poorly. The themes Wasserstein explores are still current. The way women negotiate between independence and connection, between career ambition and personal desire, between what they think they want and what they actually accept. Those conversations have not stopped. If anything, they have intensified. What distinguishes this play from similar works is its refusal to offer a neat resolution. The ending does not tie everything up. The characters make choices, some of them work out, some of them do not. Life continues. That honesty is what makes it resonate. You do not walk out feeling like you have been given an answer. You walk out feeling like you have been understood. If you are considering this for a production, I would recommend reading the full script twice before making any decisions. The first read through gives you the story. The second gives you the mechanics. Both are necessary. The play rewards close attention and punishes carelessness. That is true of most good plays. This one is particularly unforgiving of directors who mistake sentimentality for emotion.

The script is available through standard theatrical licensing channels. Performance materials and orchestration parts can be ordered separately if you plan a fully scored production. Most regional and collegiate theaters run this successfully with a simple pit setup or even pre-recorded music depending on their resources. The demands are modest, but the payoff is significant.