The Heidi Chronicles

A raucous celebration of women's consciousness-raising, trends, flaws, and foibles, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES is a good-time performance by the spirited L.A. Theatre Works. Wasserstein's decades-spanning coffee klatch traces a group of women from the 1960s to the present as they witness and embrace each other's choices and their outcomes. Thankfully, Wasserstein endows her characters with enough wisdom to laugh at themselves, and the more-than-willing cast supplies a spice-rack's worth of flavor to their roles. Sound quality is typical L.A. Theatre Works--the production sounds like a live stage play rather than a reading, though music and sound effects are a grade below the actors' performances. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine