BWW REVIEWS: Nashville Rep's Starry VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning play from Broadway's 2013 season, includes so many dramatic devices - what with Chekhovian themes, characters inspired by Greek theater, the play-within-a-play conceit, and countless nods to any number of earlier dramatic works - that its biting wit easily can be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of all its intentions.

However, with a capable director in charge of the onstage hijinks and a superb cast of actors who become the characters created by the playwright, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is full of exceedingly funny moments that offer its audiences enough food for thought to require a ritual cleanse. It's not lightweight, to be certain, but neither does it bog you down in tragedy: rather, much like life, the latest comedy from Durang throws everything at you and your response is likely due to your own personal experiences more than any words he puts to paper.

Now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre as the season-ending production from Nashville Repertory Theatre, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike has a lot to say and, for the most part, it does so with vigor and bite. Durang's play somehow remains an artful blending of hilarity and gloom that succeeds on many levels, credit for which is due both writer and director, in this case Nashville's own imaginative visionary aka Nate Eppler.

Yet it might be the collective performance of Eppler's six-person ensemble (who represent the best and brightest of Nashville theater, and whose casting demonstrates something of a generational shift among our city's theatrical luminaries) that makes Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike such a compelling entertainment and which proves why live theater is so absolutely intriguing.

It's a tricky proposition, to be sure: Making audiences think and laugh at the same time isn't as easy as it may seem from the comfort of your favorite chair, so it is incumbent upon the show's creative team to make it work. Nashville Rep's team does so with impressive results, telling the story of three middle-aged siblings and their younger trio of hangers-on who help them to sharply focus upon what is wrong in their lives - and, perhaps surprisingly, to divine how to fix it all. Although that synopsis sounds daunting (go check out Wikipedia if you want to know more about the show's plot...my concern in this review is this particular production and its winning ensemble of players), it's imminently more accessible and engaging.

Suffice it to say that if you were to put Bobby Wyckoff, Martha Wilkinson, Shelean Newman, Jennifer Richmond, Tamiko S. Robinson (quite frankly, they're as good as it gets anywhere) and Brett Cantrell (new to us, but with impeccable comic timing - can that be listed on a resume as a special skill?) onstage with a phone book and shouted "go!," hilarity will likely ensue. They're bold and brash when need be, understated and kind of elegant when it's called for in Durang's wide-ranging script. Together, they represent Eppler's most notable decision when it comes to Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

Perhaps, as he conceived the play, Durang believed that Vanya, Sonia, Masha, Spike, Cassandra and Nina - his lovingly crafted sextet of players - offered him a last gasp at theatrical immortality (clearly, Vanya stands in for the playwright and Masha represents his college chum Sigourney Weaver, who created the role off- and on-Broadway) and that might explain the excessively wordy and sometimes didactic script foisted upon the actors. However, he manages to leaven all the words with enough humor to make them palatable even while hitting audiences over the head with his own worldview.

With a gorgeous, sumptuous Gary Hoff set upon which to play out their fanciful scenes - lighted by the artistry of Phillip Franck's all-seeing, all-knowing brain; clothed in stellar costumes by Trish Clark that allow them to more easily cloak themselves in their characters; and amid Evelyn Pearson's spot-on props design - the ensemble gleefully approach the script, zealously strutting their collective stuff for adoring and oh-so-delighted audiences who congratulate themselves for being so erudite and sophisticated that they get all of Durang's jokes. It's a wondrous conclusion to a remarkable 30th anniversary season for Nashville's very own professional, regional theater that, with this show and the ones that came before it since last fall, further cements its place in our starry, inspirational and creative hometown.

The creative team, headed by Nashville Rep's producing artistic director Rene D. Copeland, and including all manner of capable folks onstage and off-, consistently deliver the goods - whether comic or tragic, musical or play - and, thereby, make Music City so much more than outsiders could ever believe.

Wyckoff, easily one of the most graceful actors to ever set foot on a Nashville stage, presents Vanya as a believable, genuine individual whose frailties and shortcomings are mere footnotes to his hidden passion. He approaches his role with a sure-footed adeptness that underscores his easy way with a line, with a moment, and with a scene. His performance is nothing short of rapturous.

Newman's Masha is delightfully over-the-top, but somehow she manages to keep at least one beautifully extended pinky in the reality of a world that chews up youthful beauty and leaves it, lying spent on the soundstage floor. Artistically challenged by the role, Newman rises to the occasion and, somehow, presents an easily disliked Masha as someone you want to love and protect even as she demands the spotlight and sucks up all the oxygen in the theater's vast darkness.

Richmond, one of the most versatile actors to be found onstage, plays next-door neighbor Nina with a sense of youthful sweetness that could be stilted and overbearing in lesser hands. Her chemistry with the other actors onstage is stunning.

Making their Nashville Rep mainstage debuts, Robinson and Cantrell make the most of their time onstage, going toe-to-toe with their more experienced cohorts and creating memorable characterizations in the process. Robinson very nearly steals every scene she's in as the otherworldly Cassandra and Cantrell (even if he's too skinny for the hotter than hot character of Spike described in the script...he's like a straight guy's vision of what must be hot to a gay guy and/or straight woman...oh, wait, I guess that explains that) never shies away from appearing ridiculous as the boy-toy object of everyone's lust.

All that pales, however, in comparison to one very remarkable, perhaps even awe-inspiring, element that is certain to propel any production into the theatrical stratosphere: Martha Wilkinson. On her own, Wilkinson is a force of nature - no matter the stage vehicle, whether it's a musical (she's a nine-time First Night Award winner) or a play (her unparalelled ease at playing comedy is equaled by her heartrending ability to assay more dramatic roles) - but as the eponymous Sonia she once again shows audiences why she is arguably the finest actor hereabouts. Almost unrecognizable as the frumpy, dour Sonia, Wilkinson captures her character's sadness with grace, while playing her more manic moments with just the right amount of zany alacrity. Wilkinson's telephone conversation (a theatrical device that can fill a critic's heart with dread) with an unseen man named Joe gives her the opportunity to put all her ample talents on display. She succeeds with a bravura performance that should not be missed.

• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. By Christopher Durang. Directed by Nate Eppler. Presented by Nashville Repertory Theatre at the Andrew Johnson Theatre at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville. Through April 25. For details, go to www.nashvillerep.org. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes (with a 15-minute intermission).

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