Theater review: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Hooray for homecomings. Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, a sweet-sad comic riff on Anton Chekhov, is now on stage at Bucks County Playhouse, just a few miles from Princeton, where the play had its premiere in 2012. 

It’s also a homecoming for Durang himself, a longtime local resident, who is — for the first (and perhaps only) time — now starring in his own play. It’s a major coup for the Playhouse.

This was my third Vanya — I saw the original production at McCarter, and another at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. I admit to some mixed feelings about the piece. Durang’s complex mix of styles here — farce, sentiment, absurdity and more — doesn’t completely cohere, and I miss the more corrosive humor for which he’s better known.

But I understand why the softer contours and gentler charm of Vanya have made it such a crowd-pleaser. And in many ways, this production makes the best case I’ve seen yet for Durang’s script.

Some of this is due to director Sheryl Kaller, who pitches the tone at a midpoint, effectively making it a boulevard comedy tinged with something darker. 

There’s also much to enjoy in the acting ensemble, including Marilu Henner and Deirdre Madigan. But it’s Durang himself who is the revelation. He is perfectly cast as the befuddled, loveable-but-with-an-edge Vanya, and it’s a joy to hear him navigate his own comic cadences so masterfully. 

In producing Vanya, Bucks County Playhouse has pulled off something genuinely unique. Here is a current favorite play, staged in absolutely the right place (it’s set in Bucks County), and starring its author, whose individual performance is something to treasure.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, $25-$75, through Aug.10, Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope, Pa., 215-862-2121, bcptheater.org.