The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard is playing at the American Airlines Theatre located at 227 West 42nd Street. It runs two hours and twenty five minutes with one intermission. The play closes on December 2, 2016.

Russian playwright Anton Chekhov wrote the play in 1904. It was his last play.

The new version was written by Stephen Karam. He won a Tony Award in 2016 for The Humans. Stephen was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for the Humans and in 2012 for Sons of the Prophet.

Joel Grey won a Tony Award in 1966 for Cabaret, He was nominated for three Tony Awards for The Grand Tour (1979), Good Time Charley ((1975) and George M (1969). Joel was nominated for four Drama Desk Awards for Chicago (1996), Cabaret (1987), The Grand Tour (1979) and Good Time Charley (1975).

Chuck Cooper won a Tony Award in 1997 for The Life.

John Glover won a Tony Award for Love! Valour! Compassion! (1995) and wan nominated for a Tony Award for Waiting for Godot (2013).

Celia Keen-Bolan was nominated for three Tony Awards for The Glass Menagerie (2014), Peter and the Starcatcher (2011) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005).

Ranevsky Lyubov Andreyevna (Diane Lane) comes home after a long absence. Everyone is gathering in the room she had as a child. Her daughter Anya (Tavi Gevinson) comes in the room tired.

Ranevskaya brother Gaev, Leonid Andreyevich (John Glover) and her adopted daughter Varya (Celia Keenan-Bolger) live and take care of the estate.

There are debts that have not been paid and she is about to lose everything. She has no concept of money and how to earn it or save it.

One of the other estate owners Simeonov-Pischik, Boris Borisovich (Chuck Cooper) has hit on hard times too. He asks her for money and she gives it to him, leaving her broke.

Firs (Joel Grey) has been a servant in the house for a long time. He is old and has no skill to be on his own.

Lopakhin, Yermolai Alekseyevich (Harold Perrineau) is a business man who tells Ranevskaya how she can save the house. His family were serfs for two generation at the estate. He managed to break away and make something of himself. Vrys cares for him,

Anya is attracted to a perpetual student Trofimov, Pyotr Sergeyevich(Kyle Beltran)

The theme revolves around the old way of living in Russia and the new generation. The old rich have no concept that their way of life is coming to an end and how to deal with it.

I liked the play as done. I’ve never seen the Cherry Orchard before so I have nothing to base it on. Audience members were leaving after the first act because they said it was not Chekov’s play. So if you are looking for the traditional Cherry Orchard this is not one you should see. Ah Tradition!

From where I sat, part of the stage floor looked like a like a large tree that had been cut down. A symbol of what was and what will be.

Great cast doing an outstanding job. John Glover, Diane Lane and Chuck Cooper shine.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on recent photos for this and other shows.