Looks like Broadway audiences love a good laugh. Christopher Durang’s Tony-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, starring Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce and Kristine Nielsen, has recouped its full $2.75 million investment in just 17 weeks.Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run through August 25 at the Golden Theatre.
In addition to Weaver, Pierce and Nielsen, Vanya features Shalita Grant, Billy Magnussen and Liesel Allen-Yeager. Tony winner Julie White joins the production on July 30, replacing Weaver in the role of Masha.
Inspired by the works of Chekhov, the play takes the playwright's classic characters and plotlines and transports them to modern-day Pennsylvania. Vanya (Pierce) and his adopted sister Sonia (Nielsen) have lived their entire lives in their family’s farmhouse. Their sister Masha (Weaver) has been gallivanting around the world as a successful actress and movie star, leaving Vanya and Sonia feeling trapped and regretful. Meanwhile, their soothsayer/cleaning woman Cassandra (Grant) keeps warning them about terrible things in the future, which include a sudden visit from Masha and her twenty-something boy toy Spike (Magnussen).
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike received six 2013 Tony nominations, taking home the coveted Best Play Award.