BWW Reviews: Durang's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE a Delight at Paper Mill

Christopher Durang's funniest play since the days of Sister Mary Ignatius and Beyond Therapy, the 2013 Tony Award winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, arrives at The Paper Mill Playhouse in a splendid production helmed by Don Stephenson.

As the title suggests, much of this thoughtful comedy is inspired by the classics of Anton Chekhov. While you don't have to be familiar with Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull to enjoy the hilarity, getting the parallels to the work of the Russian dramatist certainly adds to the fun.

David Korins' unit set, the same one used on Broadway, depicts the well-worn farmhouse in Bucks County where the buttoned-up, reserved Vanya (a dour and melancholy Mark Nelson) lives with his adopted sister, the socially awkward Sonia (Michele Pawk, full of eccentric pathos). The pair, neither of whom ever had any lasting romantic relationship, have lived their entire lives there, taking care of their ailing parents, who are now deceased, while their cluelessly narcissistic sister Masha (Carolyn McCormick as a diva showing her cracks), a wealthy star of trashy Hollywood blockbusters and five-time divorcee, supports them financially.

Vanya and Sonia's only regular company is their housekeeper, Cassandra (seriously silly Gina Daniels) who is given to going into trances and making seemingly random pronouncements of doom.

Their relatively quiet existence, where the highlight of the day might be an argument as to whether or not their handful of cherry trees constitutes an orchard, is interrupted by a visit from Masha and her latest boy toy, Spike (cheery and well-chiseled Philippe Bowgen), a much younger aspiring actor who thrives on the attention he gets whenever the opportunity arises to strip down to his skivvies.

Jamie Ann Romero is precociously wise and sincere as Nina, the neighbor girl with an initial thing for Spike ("He's so attractive, except for his personality, of course.") who develops a more significant friendship with Vanya through their mutually artistic souls

Alert Chekhovians will sense from the start that Masha has an important announcement to make to her siblings, but the off-beat twist is that she's also arranged for the foursome to attend a costume party at a neighboring home, and while the celeb does her best to insure that she'll be the belle of the ball, Sonia inadvertently threatens to steal her show.

As expected, Durang's text is loaded with highbrow wisecracks ("If everyone took antidepressants, Chekhov would have had nothing to write about.") but the play's highlights are two wonderfully written second act monologues.

The first has Pawk's beautifully naïve Sonia taking an unexpected phone call from a potential suitor and feeling a rush of conflicting emotions when she realizes she's being asked for a date.

Shortly after is an off-kilter rant from Vanya, played with mounting fury by Nelson, where he mourns how individualized technology has robbed our society of communal experiences like licking stamps and watching The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Chekhov was known for rather sorrowful comedies, but Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is charmingly hopeful, and this well-cast and handsomely mounted production is a delight.

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