Award-Winning Playwright Wendy Wasserstein Reportedly Gravely Ill

Award-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, currently represented on the New York stage by the off-Broadway hit Third, is "gravely ill," according to Newsday. She is reportedly in a New York hospital, though the details of her condition have not been made public.

Wasserstein is best known as the author of The Heidi Chronicles, which received the l989 Pulitzer Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and Tony, New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Her plays The Sisters Rosensweig and An American Daughter also played on Broadway. In addition to Third, her off-Broadway credits include Uncommon Women and Others, Isn't It Romantic, The Heidi Chronicles and Old Money. Third, which sold out its initially scheduled engagement before previews began, is now set to run at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre through December 18. Wasserstein wrote the film The Object of My Affection and the books Bachelor Girls, Pamela's First Musical and Sloth. The musical adaptation of Pamela's First Musical is set to premiere at California's Theatreworks in the spring.

Wasserstein, age 55, is the single mother of six-year-old daughter Lucy Jane. A few years ago, the playwright developed Bell's Palsy, a condition that causes weakening of the facial muscles.

A Lincoln Center spokesperson had no comment on Wasserstein's condition.