Women of Manhattan

by John Patrick Shanley

Women of Manhattan. An upper west side story

Genres: Plays, Theatre

72 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

John Patrick Shanley was born in The Bronx, New York City, to a telephone operator mother and a meat-packer father. He is a graduate of New York University, and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre.

For his script for the 1987 film, Moonstruck, Shanley won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

In 1990, Shanley directed his script of Joe Versus the Volcano. Shanley also wrote two songs for the movie: "Marooned Without You" and "The Cowboy Song."

In 2004 Shanley was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame.

In 2005, Shanley's play Doubt: A Parable was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Drama Desk Award and Tony Award for Best Play. Doubt: A Parable, is featured in The Fourth Wall, a book of photographs by Amy Arbus in which Shanley also wrote the foreword.

In 2008, Shanley directed a film version of Doubt starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proto-"Sex and the City" from back in 1986, but written by a guy (who wrote Moonstruck). A lot of clever and entertaining rapid-fire dialogue between three women who represent the two extremes of the "sex and the city spectrum, and the middle. Two male characters are also thrown in (oddly missing from the character list) for the women to bounce off, so as a friend pointed out: this fails the Bechtel-Wallace test. Felt like it emerged from an improv game, but "No, but" instead of "Yes, and". Great dialogue writing, but some offstage domestic violence in the 3rd act which was trying to be edgy-funny in 1986 simply does NOT age well.

[Brittany Marsicek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dated AF. I honestly am starting to hate plays of woman written by men. They’re so out of touch with reality.


A woman gets punched in the face by her husband but isn’t mad because she finally feels something?! Wtf is that shit. Not to mention all the slurs that were unnecessary, it’s like playwrights only care about shock value.

[Kendra Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs black actor. Somewhat dated. Meaty roles for 3 women.

[madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this little play. A snapshot on a group of women living in New York, with more time spent on some characters than others, but overall a sweet play

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some great moments, but I just didn't particularly enjoy it. I don't really like any of the characters, probably because the only one I come close to identifying with is Rhonda.

[Aleigha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of the slurs within this play, but two of the female characters are easy to relate to. A couple of witty moments. All in all a play decent to pull all female scenes from.