Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Will Transfer to Broadway
By Adam Hetrick
29 Jan 2013
The limited 17-week engagement will begin previews March 5 towards a March 14 opening night at the Golden Theatre. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike boasts a cast led by Sigourney Weaver, Kristine Nielsen and David Hyde Pierce with Shalita Grant, Billy Magnussen and Genevieve Angelson.
Joey Parnes, Larry Hirschhorn, and John O’Boyle, in association with McCarter Theatre and Lincoln Center Theater, will produce the Broadway run.
Nicholas Martin, who also helmed Durang’s Why Torture Is Wrong andBetty’s Summer Vacation, directs the production that had its world premiere at the McCarter Theatre Center in New Jersey earlier this fall, prior to its New York run that opened Off-Broadway Nov. 12, 2012. Critics and audiences responded warmly to the farce that whips characters from the Russian playwright’s catalogue into a weekend of costumes, prophecies and existential longing.
The cast features three-time Oscar nominee Weaver (“Working Girl” “Alien”), a veteran of Durang’s Sex and Longing, Crazy Mary, Beyond Therapy; as well as fellow Durang favorite, Obie Award winner Nielsen, who appeared in Betty’s Summer Vacation and Why Torture Is Wrong and The People Who Love Them.
Also starring are Tony and Emmy Award winner Pierce (Curtains, Spamalot, “Frasier”), Genevieve Angelson (“Army Wives”), Shalita Grant (The Merchant of Veniceat Shakespeare in the Park) and Billy Magnussen (The Ritz, “Boardwalk Empire”).
Here’s how it’s billed: “Riffing on some of Anton Chekov’s most time-tested themes, Christopher Durang proves in his hysterically funny and surprisingly affecting new romp, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, that whether you’re in 19th Century Russia or 21st Century Pennsylvania, the human condition never changes. Vanya (Pierce) and Sonia (Nielsen) have never left the confines of their childhood home – a rambling farmhouse in Bucks County, PA – while having to witness the glamorous exploits of their sister, Masha (Weaver), a famous movie actress, from afar. A surprise visit from Masha and her 20-something boy toy, Spike (Magnussen), throws the normally quiet household int0 utter upheaval as its residents and visitors get swept up in an intoxicating mixture of lust, rivalry, regret, and the sudden possibility of escape. Only one thing is certain: no one will get out of this without looking absolutely ridiculous!”
The creative team also includes set designer David Korins, costume designer Emily Rebholz, lighting designer Justin Townsend, composer of original music and sound designer Mark Bennett.
Durang’s plays include A History of the American Film (Tony nomination), Sister Mary Explains It All For You (Obie Award), Beyond Therapy, Baby With The Bathwater, The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award and Guild Hull Warriner Award), Sex and Longing, Laughing Wild, Betty’s Summer Vacation (Obie Award), Miss Witherspoon (produced by McCarter Theatre Center, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist) and, most recently, Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.
Tickets will go on sale Feb. 4 via Telecharge.com.
Source: Playbill.com
