Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Not since the heroine in ``Peter Pan'' did we encounter a Wendy as delightful as Wendy Wasserstein.

Wasserstein, who died today of cancer at the age of 55, gave us plays, screenplays, teleplays, books, essays and personal appearances that made us laugh as well as think. Others wrote comedies with characters devised for yocks. Wasserstein's characters, however droll or witty, were people first. The laughter came as an important byproduct of life caught on the wing.

She was a funny person and, unlike many other comic playwrights, fun to be with. She had a puckish presence and an impish humor, but was never mischievous, egocentric or attitudinizing. Her brand of humor was based on relishing human idiosyncrasy rather than satirizing human idiocy.

There was an elfin childlikeness to her; the voice could have come (except for what it said) from a 12-year-old. Her frequent laugh combined the clucking of an effusively motherly hen with the delight of a youngster opening the very best Christmas presents.

I remember taking her to see Bernard Slade's ``Romantic Comedy'' on Broadway -- less good than his ``Same Time, Next Year'' but still amusing. Wendy's comments, during intermission and on leaving, were much funnier than the show. Critical, to be sure, but totally devoid of either professional jealousy or the slightest malice.

`Self-Deprecating Humor'

Since she was Jewish, it is only right to describe her as a thoroughgoing mensch. Yet the Hollywood folk who wooed her found her to be one tough cookie, which she could also be in her writing when political passion moved her.

She had three plays on Broadway -- second only to Lillian Hellman among female playwrights -- and one of them, ``The Heidi Chronicles,'' won both the Tony and the Pulitzer. You could always recognize her and her circle in them, lovingly transplanted to the stage.

The distinguished critic Robert Brustein, who had been her teacher at Yale, later praised her ``wry, self-deprecating humor which helps her avoid righteousness without losing her sting.''

Brustein found her ``an acute social observer,'' who noted among other things that ``the feminist movement, instead of reforming society...encouraged women to imitate the worst qualities of men.'' The only real fault he could find was her excess of wit -- a flaw that, on or off the page and stage, one can easily live with.

Fond Farewell

Reviewing ``The Sisters Rosensweig,'' I observed: ``Miss Wasserstein is surely one of our wittiest repartee writers, but under the bubbles and eddies of her wit are real people in deep water, resolutely and resonantly trying to keep from drowning. And she is able to orchestrate the interaction of her disparate characters into a complex, convincing polyphony...The play flows, entertains and liberally dispenses unpompous wisdom about ourselves.''

I recently reviewed her last play, ``Third,'' for Bloomberg News. The show was both personal and political, funny and -- about the old age and death of one of its characters -- bittersweetly moving.

It was, however unintentionally, a fond and humane farewell. But it is deeply sad that neither in our theatergoing nor in our socializing will we hear again Wendy Wasserstein's contagious and salutary laughter.

Funeral services are private. Lincoln Center plans to announce a memorial service.

To contact the writer of this review: John Simon at jis1925@aol.com.

Last Updated: January 30, 2006 14:28 EST