Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Sheryl Baby
Swing Joined: 8/7/14
#1Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Posted: 8/7/14 at 8:47am
Christopher Durang is a wonderful playwright, but why didn't they pull him from this production when it was clear the job was way beyond him? I saw the show last weekend and it's been running for a couple weeks. Durang called for lines at least 8 times (with an audible reply from the wings) but worse -- the other actors are constantly feeding him lines or correcting what he says. He wrote it but can't remember it? The monologue was one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever sat through in a theatre. The only angst was an actor struggling to remember what to say, while saying it all totally devoid of any emotion.
Several reviews were honest, while a couple others danced around the "elephant in the room" that the playwright was simply horrible in the role. Here's one of the most on-the-mark reviews.
Review of Vanya at Bucks
#2Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Posted: 8/7/14 at 8:50am
Wow, that's really sad. I'd have thought that the role would fit him like a glove.
Apropos of nothing - is he still partnered with John Augustine?
#2Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Posted: 8/7/14 at 11:24amYes, he and John Augustine are still together.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#3Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Posted: 8/7/14 at 4:47pmIn fact they recently got married! Congratulations!
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#4Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Posted: 8/9/14 at 11:35amCalling line 8 times? Wow. I'm startled that he'd put himself through this, let alone the company. It's not surprising that he didn't know the words; writing dialog and learning it are entirely separate functions of the (creative) brain. But he had months to prepare; one would think he'd be at the top of his (new) game. I'm wondering if the challenge was finally greater than he anticipated. The play is funny only if performed with absolutely precision, like all Durang. There isn't room for fudging words, paraphrasing or the like. It needs the same adherence to the text as any Oscar Wilde. This is sad. I thought it sounded like a terrific idea.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#5Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Posted: 8/9/14 at 11:45amJust had some friends see this earlier in the week and they said it was beyond terrible. Such a shame as the writing is terrific and if done correctly can be hysterical.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#6Vanya at Bucks County with the playwright
Posted: 8/9/14 at 11:58amI just remembered: I saw him in the MTC "Putting it Together" with Julie Andrews. He was charming, and perfectly used as a quasi-host/narrator. And even with the trickiest lyrics, and he had some definitive Sondheim assembled words to learn, spot-on.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
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