Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?- Page 3
Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
#50Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 8:51am
Durang's play is silly, uninvolving, and manipulative. It's been overhyped because a man with muscles is in it
Yup, JayG 2, THAT'S why people like it. You are so right. I was deceived because Billy is really hot, and there has never been a hot guy in a show before.
Effing moron.
#51Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 11:58am
I have a hunch
you people who didn't like it.... are you under 30???
What are your ages.. Jay G and all dissenters.
It is possible that the show just does not speak to you at this point in your life.
It seemed written for me! And boy did it speak to me. I have signs saying "Always get your hopes up." all over my apartment.
#52Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 12:00pmI'm not sure age has anything to do with it. I'm younger than thirty and have peers who loved it. After Eight and others who have disliked it are above that age and did not.
#53Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 12:13pm
I'm not sure either.. but it's worth looking into.
By the way.. I also hated Peter and the Starcatcher but I loved Vanya.
#54Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 12:23pmI'm under 30 and loved it.
#55Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 2:26pmAge has nothing to with it. After Eight hated it and he's somewhere around after eighty.
#56Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 3:15pm
So new hypothesis
Most under 30's won't like it
Most over 70 won't like it.
but some will
nevermind.... LOL.
#57Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/23/13 at 3:15pmIf you like Durang, you'll like it.
#58Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/24/13 at 11:14am
I loved it, and it's the best Durang in a long time (not sure I can ever forgive him for SEX AND LONGING), but I've sent a number of people to see it, and most have been disappointed.
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#59Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 3/24/13 at 11:20am
SPOILER ALERT
I don't think that age really determines whether someone will enjoy this play. I loved it and there were both older and younger audience members around me who laughed at a lot of the best stuff. But I understand how that possible idea arose. In the second act, when Vanya has his long rant about everything, he makes multiple references to things as they were when he was younger, presumably the 50's and 60's: Howdy Doody, rotary dial phones, no computers or cell phones, etc. It may be that people who are Vanya's age or older laugh more at certain lines because they, like Vanya, remember such things personally.
This was my first Durang play. I thought parts were less successful, but the acting was generally superior for a comic piece (albeit a dark comic piece) like this. Spike taking his clothes off and generally acting like a 17-year-old got a little tiresome, but I thought the Sonia and Nina characters were wonderful Chekhov homages. and surprisingly subtle.
I did not think the Cassandra character was a racial slur in any way - I have Haitain friends who make jokes about using voo doo all the time and see it as part of their cultural image, whether they like it or not - and she is a delightful combination of Cassandra and Philadelphia. After all, she is no battier than the white characters around her, and she is right about them.
#60Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/2/13 at 3:18pm
Saw this on Saturday and enjoyed if very much. I am also way way under 40 so I don't think age has anything to do with the show.
People kept telling me that the show was really intellectual and might have been hard to understand, but I found it very easy to understand. I guess that means that I underestimate my intelligence all the time or the show isn't really that intellectual at all.
The play is very well written and the comedy can be related to on any level. I went into the show just to see Billy Magnussen take off his clothes and although I wasn't disappointed.
***spoiler*** I would say he is half naked or scantily clad for about 30 minutes of the show. ***end****
I found the show very entertaining outside of him being almost naked. There was not a weak link in the cast at all. Great well-rounded show.
#61Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 1:26pm
I think I'm in the middle on this show. After reading everyone's reviews I had pretty high hopes. Not to say that they were dashed because I really liked the show but I didn't love it.
The performances were phenomenal across the board (with Nina being the weakest link). I've never seen Sigourney perform live but I could watch her all day long. Of course DHP was amazing as always. The real stand out for me was Kristine Nielsen. I totally didn't put two and two together and recognize her from BBAJ. Her physical comedy is great. Her Maggie Smith impersonation was KILLING me! She is very expressive even from the back of the mezz. I can't decide who would be more deserving of the Tony nod/win.
The play itself is where I am middling. I've never seen a Durang play before but I liked it for the most part. I will say that Vanya's diatribe seems to come out of nowhere in the show and goes on a little long. Don't think I didn't like it because I'm too young for the references because I got 90% of them. I just didn't find it funny or impactful in the way I'm sure Durang thought it was. The phone call monologue didn't do it for me like most here. I'm going to have to agree with After Eight that it did seem inorganic and staged. Act 1 was definitely the highlight for me because the second act got a little boring with all the monologues and voodoo stuff.
Don't get me wrong now. I would definitely recommend the show to everyone but I'm not raving about it like most commenters.
#62Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 5:32pm
I think the play is brilliant. It's very hard to write a full length stage comedy but Durang pulls it off. He uses the mashup as a comic form and it not only works but it expands in depth as it goes along without ever veering too far away from comedy. His comic language is also in his own unique voice and it's funny line by line and I didn't hear a single false note in it. I think he should get the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play even though I know that's not going to happen since comedies are considered an inferior dramatic genre by the kind of people who give out the Pulitzers. However, if you didn't like it then you didn't like it.
Updated On: 4/3/13 at 05:32 PM
dave1606
Broadway Star Joined: 12/8/07
#63Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 5:48pmI love this play so much. I am thrilled to be returning tonight. Will be my first time since the first preview at Lincoln Center. Can't wait! Kristine Neilson is everything! I would go back weekly just to watch her deliver the phone call scene.
#64Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 5:54pmLoved VANYA and STARCATCHER. Both plays, in their different ways, captured the magic of theatre.
#65Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 8:45pm^^^Yes.
#66Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 9:10pm
Tiny threadjack, but just caught PETER & THE STARCATCHER at New World on Monday-- delighted to find it every inch as magical as the Broadway production was last year. Still easily the best play in New York for me.
Had a choice Sunday to see either VANYA or ASSEMBLED PARTIES. Sad to say, I chose Parties, and was scratching my head to understand the love on this board for that show. Vanya will have to wait till the next pilgrimage to NY.
#67Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 10:32pm
If people only raved about it because Billy Magnusen was in his underwear for thirty minutes, then As the World Turns with him in it would still be on the air (he rarely seemed to be clothed on it.)
I always bristle a bit when people bring the age of an audience into the equation. When I was a teen and just started posting on a Sondheim mailing list (remember those?) I got a lot of people *telling* me that I couldn't possibly get anything out of Passion, or especially Company or Follies being 14 years old. (I even have a reply to a rather embarassing fan letter from Sondheim himself--which I of course now cherish--where he said that he was surprised at how young I was.) Now obviously I get much different and sometimes richer things from those shows, and many other plays or books in general at the ripe old age of 33--but even if a play deals in many ways with issues like aging, I don't think that means that people with less life experience can't in many ways still relate to it.
#68Am I the only one who really disliked VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE?
Posted: 4/3/13 at 10:42pmI mean, the main thing I took out of this play wasn't about aging or nostalgia- but rather that the only thing stopping you from living is yourself.
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