Christopher Durang's zany comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike opened today in 2013 at Broadway's John Golden Theatre, kicking off a run that would go on to win that year's Tony Award for Best Play.
As theatre nerds will certainly pick up from the title, the play satirizes a lot of themes, characters, and even fans of the works of Anton Chekhov. Durang's characters are three middle-aged siblings, two of which live together in a country house complete with a former cherry orchard—but this one is in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. And when the third sibling comes to visit, suddenly she's talking about selling the house. Sound familiar?
But this play was anything but a simple modernization of classic Russian theatre. Charles Isherwood reviewing the Broadway run for The New York Times called it "deliriously funny," specifically a moment when Kristine Nielsen as Sonia "swans onstage in a sequined evening gown, with a tiara shimmering on her head and a new glitter of self-confidence in her eyes. When Sonia proceeds to explain why she is thus attired, the theatre erupts in booming gusts of laughter that practically shake the seats." Ben Brantley weighing in on the Off-Broadway run (also for the Times) that preceded the Main Stem bow in 2012 said that "for a couple of benignly stretched-out hours, Durang fans can watch a master of antic psycho-comedy play with Chekhov like a self-amusing cat toying with a tangled string."
Durang had managed an amazing feat, deftly mixing the high and low brow, giving audiences a comedy filled with theatrical in jokes, physical comedy, Chekhovian subtext, and even some noted man candy in Billy Magnussen as Spike, Masha's intellectually challenged boy toy.
And Magnussen wasn't the only star in the cast (at the time he was a relative newcomer, but he's gone on to become a film star with roles in such films as Aaladdin, Get Shorty, Made For Love, and No Time to Die). The original company, all of whom reprised their work on Broadway after starring in the play's Off-Broadway premiere the year prior, included Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, Nielsen, Shalita Grant, and Genevieve Angelson. Pierce, Nielsen, Magnussen, and Grant were all nominated for 2013 Tony Awards for their performances, as was director Nicholas Martin.
Sure, if you know the Chekhov the jokes will hit on a different level, but Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike hardly needed extensive knowledge of the Russian master's back catalogue to be enjoyed. The show didn't just win the Tony Award. It was a big success with audiences, too, reportedly recouping its nearly $3 million investment in less than four months. It's also gone on to be a frequently produced title at theatres across the country. Durang himself starred as Vanya in a production at Bucks County Playhouse in 2014, alongside Marilu Henner as Masha.
The production still stands in the hearts of theatre fans as one of Durang's most beloved works, and one of Lincoln Center Theater's most popular productions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company streamed a filmed performance from the production's Off-Broadway run. Last year, the theatre staged a benefit reading with Nielsen, Weaver, and Pierce reprising their performances. Durang passed away in 2024 at the age of 75 and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike remains his only play to have won a Tony.
Learn what other theatre milestones happened on March 14 by visiting the Playbill Vault.
Look back at the original Broadway production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike in the gallery below.
