Family
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Morris and Lola
Wasserstein, Bruce Wasserstein was one of five siblings. His father,
Morris, a Jewish immigrant from pre-World War II Poland,
emigrated to New York City and started a ribbon company. His
maternal grandfather was Simon Schleifer, a Jewish teacher in the yeshiva in
Wloclawek, Poland. Claims that Schleifer was a prominent playwright are most
likely apocryphal, as this profession was only added to his résumé after Wendy Wasserstein, his sister, won the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama
Say hello to Lucy Jane Wasserstein. Mother: Pulitzer-prize
winning playwright, Wendy Wasserstein. Father: not yet announced. Born: Sept.
12, 1999, in Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Weight: 790 grams, under 2 lbs. And
what a production it was!
The director Gerald Gutierrez (''The Heiress,'' ''A Delicate Balance'') was
in the delivery room. The costume designer William Ivey Long (''Crazy for You,''
''Chicago,'' ''Guys and Dolls'') decorated the hospital room. Meryl Streep, Ms.
Wasserstein's friend from the Yale Drama School, sneaked in to see the baby,
incognito. The writer James Lapine (''Passion,'' ''Sunday in the Park With
George'') and the set designer Heidi Ettinger (''Big River,'' ''The Secret
Garden'') brought mother and baby home.
''If you haven't won a Tony, can you go?'' Ms. Ettinger asked as she waited
outside Mount Sinai's intensive care unit for Lucy Jane to come out in her car
seat for the cab ride to Ms. Wasserstein's apartment on the Upper West Side.
Ms. Wasserstein, 49, has long been called ''the voice of her generation.''
She came of age when a new definition of what it meant to be a woman was
formulating. In a sense, she has lived most of the stories in her
plays.
Lola S. Wasserstein, whose larger-than-life personality provided inspiration
for sprightly maternal characters in the plays of her daughter Wendy, died
Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 89.
Skip to next paragraph
RelatedTimes Topics: Wendy
Wasserstein
Her granddaughter Pam Wasserstein announced the death.
Wendy Wasserstein had said that her mother
inspired the character Tasha Blumberg, the aerobically inclined mother in the
play “Isn’t It Romantic.” Lola was also a model for the recently deceased mother
who influenced the title characters’ psychologies in “The Sisters Rosensweig.”
And she was an influence for the mother of the character Holly Kaplan, who
complains that her mother — not seen onstage — is pushing her to find a
boyfriend in “Uncommon Women and Others.”
Lola Wasserstein gave Wendy ample advice, which she eagerly passed on:
“Always look nice when you throw out the garbage. You never know who you might
meet.”
Lola Schleiffer was born in a village in Poland in 1918, immigrated with her
family to New Jersey in 1931, then moved to Brooklyn and the Upper East Side.
She married Morris Wasserstein, an inventor and businessman who died in
2003.
Their daughter Sandra W. Meyer, a prominent marketing executive, died in
1998. Wendy Wasserstein died last year. Mrs. Wasserstein is survived by her
daughter Georgette Levis, owner of an inn in Vermont; a son, Abner Wasserstein;
and another son, Bruce Wasserstein, a Wall Street magnate who helped lead
protests against removing the nest of two red-tailed hawks from a cornice of his
Fifth Avenue co-op apartment building. The female hawk was named Lola.
Mrs. Wasserstein is also survived by 12 grandchildren and six
great-grandchildren.
Correction: June 25, 2007
An obituary on Tuesday of Lola S. Wasserstein, the mother of the playwright
Wendy Wasserstein
and the inspiration for several characters in her plays, misstated her influence
on the play “Uncommon Women and Others.” She was the model for the mother of the
character Holly Kaplan, not for Holly Kaplan herself. The obituary also referred
incorrectly to Holly. She complains that her mother — not seen onstage — is
pushing her to find a boyfriend. It is not Holly who pushes her daughter to find
a boyfriend. (Holly does not have a daughter in the play.) The obituary also
omitted a survivor, a son, Abner Wasserstein.
Wasserstein, Bruce Wasserstein was one of five siblings. His father,
Morris, a Jewish immigrant from pre-World War II Poland,
emigrated to New York City and started a ribbon company. His
maternal grandfather was Simon Schleifer, a Jewish teacher in the yeshiva in
Wloclawek, Poland. Claims that Schleifer was a prominent playwright are most
likely apocryphal, as this profession was only added to his résumé after Wendy Wasserstein, his sister, won the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama
Say hello to Lucy Jane Wasserstein. Mother: Pulitzer-prize
winning playwright, Wendy Wasserstein. Father: not yet announced. Born: Sept.
12, 1999, in Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Weight: 790 grams, under 2 lbs. And
what a production it was!
The director Gerald Gutierrez (''The Heiress,'' ''A Delicate Balance'') was
in the delivery room. The costume designer William Ivey Long (''Crazy for You,''
''Chicago,'' ''Guys and Dolls'') decorated the hospital room. Meryl Streep, Ms.
Wasserstein's friend from the Yale Drama School, sneaked in to see the baby,
incognito. The writer James Lapine (''Passion,'' ''Sunday in the Park With
George'') and the set designer Heidi Ettinger (''Big River,'' ''The Secret
Garden'') brought mother and baby home.
''If you haven't won a Tony, can you go?'' Ms. Ettinger asked as she waited
outside Mount Sinai's intensive care unit for Lucy Jane to come out in her car
seat for the cab ride to Ms. Wasserstein's apartment on the Upper West Side.
Ms. Wasserstein, 49, has long been called ''the voice of her generation.''
She came of age when a new definition of what it meant to be a woman was
formulating. In a sense, she has lived most of the stories in her
plays.
Lola S. Wasserstein, whose larger-than-life personality provided inspiration
for sprightly maternal characters in the plays of her daughter Wendy, died
Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 89.
Skip to next paragraph
RelatedTimes Topics: Wendy
Wasserstein
Her granddaughter Pam Wasserstein announced the death.
Wendy Wasserstein had said that her mother
inspired the character Tasha Blumberg, the aerobically inclined mother in the
play “Isn’t It Romantic.” Lola was also a model for the recently deceased mother
who influenced the title characters’ psychologies in “The Sisters Rosensweig.”
And she was an influence for the mother of the character Holly Kaplan, who
complains that her mother — not seen onstage — is pushing her to find a
boyfriend in “Uncommon Women and Others.”
Lola Wasserstein gave Wendy ample advice, which she eagerly passed on:
“Always look nice when you throw out the garbage. You never know who you might
meet.”
Lola Schleiffer was born in a village in Poland in 1918, immigrated with her
family to New Jersey in 1931, then moved to Brooklyn and the Upper East Side.
She married Morris Wasserstein, an inventor and businessman who died in
2003.
Their daughter Sandra W. Meyer, a prominent marketing executive, died in
1998. Wendy Wasserstein died last year. Mrs. Wasserstein is survived by her
daughter Georgette Levis, owner of an inn in Vermont; a son, Abner Wasserstein;
and another son, Bruce Wasserstein, a Wall Street magnate who helped lead
protests against removing the nest of two red-tailed hawks from a cornice of his
Fifth Avenue co-op apartment building. The female hawk was named Lola.
Mrs. Wasserstein is also survived by 12 grandchildren and six
great-grandchildren.
Correction: June 25, 2007
An obituary on Tuesday of Lola S. Wasserstein, the mother of the playwright
Wendy Wasserstein
and the inspiration for several characters in her plays, misstated her influence
on the play “Uncommon Women and Others.” She was the model for the mother of the
character Holly Kaplan, not for Holly Kaplan herself. The obituary also referred
incorrectly to Holly. She complains that her mother — not seen onstage — is
pushing her to find a boyfriend. It is not Holly who pushes her daughter to find
a boyfriend. (Holly does not have a daughter in the play.) The obituary also
omitted a survivor, a son, Abner Wasserstein.