THE STORY: In suburban Massachusetts in 1984, thirty-seven-year-old Josephine Rosen has a dead-end job, still lives with her mother, and has settled into the uncomfortable comfort of an unintended spinsterhood. But when a chance flirtation with an old classmate and a new friendship at work give her hope for the possibility of change, she dusts off the Jane Fonda tapes and begins to take tentative steps towards a new life. A play about the tragedy and joy of figuring out who you are and letting go of who you were supposed to be.
“A tenderly drawn drama…NICE GIRL presents a slice of middle-class life with unpatronizing honesty and simplicity…And while the final image is a hopeful one, Ms. Ross wisely avoids the kind of pat or sentimental ending that would spoil the play’s mood of ambivalence, not to mention its truthfulness.” —The New York Times.
“Playwright Melissa Ross’ gentle, old-fashioned heart-tugger casts an insistent spell…It’s a simple story that makes you ponder the age-old dilemma about women having it all…Bottom line in this sweet story: Ross puts out the good candy.” —New York Daily News.
“Nice girls finish last. OK, maybe not dead last, but not far from the bottom. At least that’s the case in Melissa Ross’ play, whose title character, Josephine, is sweet as can be. And miserable…The best thing about the sweet, low-key NICE GIRL is that it never makes fun of Jo, and it doesn’t pity her, either.” —New York Post.
“Absorbing…Josephine is sympathetic but not maudlin, and Ross is refreshingly unhurried in depicting her plight. The dialogue gives the characters room to breathe…[The play] draws your attention to a woman who would not presume to command it.” —Time Out New York.
