Vania & Sonia & Masha & Spike- A Laugh Riot

[Lucky]

Other than Picnic, I saw six shows in New York. My favorite was the first one, Vanya, and Sonia and Masha and Spike. It's a very funny comedy by Christopher Durang about contemporary issues. He uses character names from various plays by Anton Chekhov, and no doubt I missed a few insider jokes.

TheaterMania provides this summary of the show:

Vanya (Pierce) and adopted sister Sonia (Nielsen) are – in true Chekhovian fashion -- bored, lonely, and aimless sitting around their lovely Bucks County home (gloriously rendered by David Korins). Now in their 50s, they lament about having given up their lives (and apparently any chance of reasonable employment) to tend to their now-dead parents, while glamorous older sister Masha (Weaver) travels the world as a world-famous actress.

Life gets temporarily upended when Masha unexpectedly shows up one day – with decades-younger boy-toy Spike in tow (the extraordinarily fit and often semi-dressed Billy Magnussen). She has returned ostensibly to attend a neighbor's costume ball, but also to deliver the shocking news that she has decided to sell the family homestead in order to cut down on her own expenses.

Before that bombshell is even dropped, the siblings find enough to bicker about, including Sonia's unrequited romantic longing for Vanya (who is gay) and her lifelong resentment of the spectacularly self-obsessed Masha. Increasing the tension tenfold, as well, is the sudden appearance of winsome visitor Nina (a perfectly cast Genevieve Angelson), whose youth and innocence unsurprisingly threaten Masha's already precarious well-being. And providing even more fodder for arguments, are the constant (and seemingly nonsensical) presentiments of the trio's aptly-named housekeeper, Cassandra (a hilarious Shalita Grant).

***

Last year I attended the comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, which was supposed to be an exceptionally funny British slapstick comedy. I laughed once. For the show at the Lincoln Center, i was constantly laughing. i guess I prefer more cerebral humor. I know I prefer dry humor.

Each actor gets his or her moment. Sigourney Weaver is excellent in hers, but David Hyde Pierce is magnificent in his. He does a rant on how we communicate less with all the new-fangled devices such as smartphones. As he speaks, he gets more worked up, and the audience is just howling by the end.

Billy Magnussen, sexy as can be, is also very charming on stage. He tells about his audition for a part in Entourage 2, and shows the sexy moves he performed. Since he is often in his underwear or practicing stripper routines, he gets lots of lustful applause.

The show closes Sunday, and tickets are very hard to get. I got the last one available last week, and was very LUCKY to have done so. This is a great show. It may move to Broadway, but it won't be the same as in the smaller house where the actors are much closer to you.

Next up: Golden Boy

[OneFinger]

Thanks for posting about this play. It's one that's being considered for my NYC trip in April.

[Lucky]

I had strongly urged a couple of friends to see this show before it closed, and they did. It made me happy to hear them say how much they liked it.