Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Playing at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater. Located at 150 West 65th street. It runs two hours fifteen minutes with one intermission. The play will close on January 13, 2013.
 

Vanya premiered at the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey from September 7, 2012 thru October 14, 2012. This is the New York premiere of this play.
 

Playwright Christopher Durang was nominated for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play “Miss Witherspoon. He was nominated for a Tony Award (book) for the musical "A History of the American Film” in 1978.
 

Sigourney Weaver was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1980 for “Das Lusitania Songspiel" and a Tony Award in 1984 for “Hurlyburly”. She is the first person to ever win two acting Golden Globe Awards in the same year. This happened in 1988 for “Gorillas in the Mist” and “Working Girl”.
 

David Hyde Pierce is best known for his role in the NBC sitcom Fraiser. He won four Emmy Awards in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2004 as Dr. Niles Crane. David won a Tony Award in 2007 for “Curtains”.
 

The play takes place in the present in a farmhouse in Bucks county.
 

Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) and his adopted sister Sonia (Kristine Nielsen) spend their mornings on the patio in the backyard of their house. Sonia is unhappy she has never had a boyfriend or a job. Vanya admits to her he is gay.
 

The house cleaner Cassandra (Shalita Grant) has visions of things that might happen. She walks around the patio calling out words or visions.
 

Their sister Masha (Sigourney Weaver) comes to visit brining her boy toy Spike (Billy Magnussen). Masha is a successful actress. She has come to attend a costume party at a neighbor’s house. Masha is taking her siblings but they hate the costumes she has picked. Meanwhile Spike complains he is hot and strips down to his underwear. He decides he will cool off in the pond where he meets Nina (Genevieve Angelson). She wants to meet Masha. It seems she is a fan.
 

The rest of the play revolves around the siblings feelings on themselves and each other.
 

The set is fantastic. David Korns designed it.

 

 

The cast is great. They work well with other. The first act has poor mechanics. Is it a comedy or drama? I did not like Sigourney character as least the way it was played. It was silly. The show takes a turn in the second act when the characters are more serious. In this act David, Sigourney and Kristine shine. You start to have feelings for the characters.
 

If it weren’t for Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce being in the show I would not seen it at all.
 

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.
 

Photos by Annazor.
 

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