Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce & More to Reunite for VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE

On Tuesday, May 7, 2024, Bartlett Sher will direct a staged reading of Christopher Durang’s Tony Award-winning play VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, featuring original cast members Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, Kristine Nielsen, David Hull, Shalita Grant, and Genevieve Angelson. The reading will take place on the set of LCT’s upcoming production of UNCLE VANYA at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. The Gala evening will support Lincoln Center Theater’s productions and education programs.

Lincoln Center Theater’s original production of VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE ran from October 25, 2012, through January 20, 2013, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.  Having opened at LCT, the production then moved to the Golden Theatre on Broadway where it ran for 201 performances, receiving the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play as well as the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. A McCarter Theatre Center commission, the production made its world premiere at the McCarter in 2012.

ABOUT VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE

In VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, master of comedy, Christopher Durang, takes characters and themes from Chekhov, pours them into a blender and mixes them up. The utterly hilarious and touching result is his play set in present-day Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) and his stepsister Sonia (Kristine Nielsen) have lived their entire lives in their family's farmhouse. While they stayed home to take care of their ailing parents, their sister Masha (Sigourney Weaver) has been gallivanting around the world as a successful actress and movie star, leaving Vanya and Sonia to feel trapped and regretful. Their soothsayer / cleaning woman Cassandra (Shalita Grant) keeps warning them about terrible things in the future, which include a sudden visit from Masha and her boy toy Spike (David Hull), and an appearance by the young and beautiful Nina (Genevieve Angelson).

HOW TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Gala tickets at the $500 and $1,000 levels include a ticket to the performance at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, followed by a cocktail party at Spike’s Lounge, in David Geffen Hall.  Higher priced Gala tickets (starting at $2,500) and tables (starting at $25,000) include the performance and a post-performance seated dinner with the cast at David Geffen Hall.  Please visit www.LCT.org/2024gala or email events@lct.org for more information and to purchase tickets.

A limited number of tickets to the performance only, priced at $100 and $250 (inclusive of fees), are available now at the Lincoln Center Theater box office, on telecharge.com, and at LCT.org.  In addition, a limited number of $35 seats (inclusive of fees) will be available via digital ticket lottery, which will open Tuesday, April 30.  For details, visit LCT.org.

Christopher Durang

(Playwright). His plays include The Idiots Karamazov (co-authored with Albert Innaurato); A History of the American Film (Tony Award nomination); Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Obie Award); Beyond Therapy (off and on Broadway); Baby with the Bathwater; The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award, Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award); Laughing Wild; For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls; Betty’s Summer Vacation (Obie Award); Miss Witherspoon (2005 Pulitzer finalist); Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. Cabaret: Das Lustitania Songspiel (co-authored and performed by Sigourney Weaver and Durang; Drama Desk noms for both performers); Chris Durang and Dawne (Bistro Award). He won the Harvard Arts Medal and the PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Master American Dramatist; Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. For 18 years he and Marsha Norman have been co-chairs of the Juilliard Playwrighting Program. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council. www.ChristopherDurang.com 

Bartlett Sher (Director)

LCT: South Pacific (Tony Award), Oslo, The King and I, Golden Boy, My Fair Lady, Awake and Sing!, The Light in the Piazza, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Tony Award nominations), Blood and Gifts, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Intimate Apparel, Camelot. Broadway: Pictures From Home, To Kill a Mockingbird (Tony Award nomination), Fiddler on the Roof, The Bridges of Madison County. Off-Broadway: Cymbeline, Waste, Don Juan, Pericles (TFANA, BAM). Opera: Rigoletto, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Otello, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Le Comte Ory, L'Elisir d'Amore (Metropolitan Opera), Roméo et Juliette (Met, Salzburg, Milan, Chicago), Faust (Baden Baden), Two Boys (ENO, Met); Mourning Becomes Electra (City Opera). Film: “Oslo” (Emmy Nomination, Critics’ Choice Award). 

Sigourney Weaver

(Masha). Academy Award nominated and BAFTA and Golden Globe winning actress Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, in films ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist. Film credits include Working Girl, Avatar, Ghostbusters, The Ice Storm and Death and the Maiden. In 2022, Weaver starred in Phyllis Nagy’s drama Call Jane alongside Elizabeth Banks as well as Wallace Wolodarsky’s The Good House alongside Kevin Kline. That same year she was seen in Avatar: The Way of Waterwhich was nominated for Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars. Also in 2023, she starred in Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener opposite Joel Edgerton, and Amazon Studios’ “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart,” which she also executive produced. Up next, she will star in The Gorge alongside Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy and horror thriller Dust Bunny alongside Mads Mikkelsen.

David Hyde Pierce

(Vanya) originated the role of Vanya at the McCarter Theatre, LCT, and on Broadway (Tony nomination), and had the honor of directing Mark Blum in the role in the Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum. He most recently appeared in Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, at The Shed. Broadway credits include Hello, Dolly! (Tony nomination); Accent on Youth; La Bête; Curtains (Tony Award) and the original production of Spamalot. Off-Broadway: The Visitor, Adam Bock’s A Life, and John Kander and Greg Pierce’s The Landing. Pierce directed Brian Hargrove and Barbara Anselmi’s It Shoulda Been You on Broadway, David Lindsay-Abaire’s Ripcord for MTC and The Importance of Being Earnest at Williamstown. Film: Crossing Delancey, Little Man Tate, Sleepless in Seattle, Wolf, Nixon, Wet Hot American Summer, Down with Love, A Bug's Life, The Perfect Host. Television credits include playing a suicidal congressman on Norman Lear's "The Powers That Be," Dr. Niles Crane on “Frasier” (Emmy, SAG Awards), and Paul Child on “Julia.”

 Kristine Nielsen

(Sonia) most recently appeared in Atlantic Theater Company and The National Theatre’s co-production of Annie Baker’s Infinite Life, Regretfully, So the Birds Are at Playwrights Horizons and the short film “The Suit.” Her Broadway credits include Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (Tony Award nomination); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Tony nom, Outer Critics Circle Award); Present Laughter; You Can't Take It with You; Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson; Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Jose Quintero’s production of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards. Nielsen has performed in numerous Off-Broadway productions at The Public, NY Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater and others. She has worked in many regional theaters and on various TV series. Two-time Tony Award nominee. Two-time Obie Award winner and an Outer Critic’s Circle Award winner. She is currently on MAX’s hit series “The Gilded Age.”  

 David Hull

(Spike) was recently seen as Death in Rachel Bloom's Death, Let Me Do My Show off-Broadway. He's best known for playing White Josh in the critically acclaimed CW series, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and for multi-season recurring roles on HBO's “Insecure” and ABC's “The Middle.” Favorite credits include Hulu's anthology series, “Into the Dark,” and the feature film Benjamin with Rob Corddry, Kevin Pollak, and the late Bob Saget. He was last seen on a New York stage as Cooper in MCC’s Really Really (directed by David Cromer) and has many additional regional, touring, and Broadway credits, including The Book of Mormon and the most recent revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying for which he understudied Daniel Radcliffe. He notably played Spike in the Los Angeles run of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, under the direction of David Hyde Pierce.

 Shalita Grant

(Cassandra). Since graduating Juilliard, Shalita Grant has nurtured an impressive body of work. Recently, she guest starred on “Abbott Elementary,” and will guest star on HBO Max’s upcoming pilot “More.” She can be seen as a series regular on season three of “You,” as well as Cassidy, the lawyer defending Dory (Alia Shawkat) on season three of the critically acclaimed HBO Max series “Search Party.” Additional TV credits include a series regular role on “NCIS: New Orleans,” and recurring arcs on “The Santa Clarita Diet,” “The Good Wife,” “Bones” and “Melissa & Joey.” She received a Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

 Genevieve Angelson

(Nina) most recently starred in the latest season of the Hulu drama series “The Handmaid’s Tale” as well as Apple’s hit comedy “The Afterparty.” Prior to that, she led the cast of “Good Girls Revolt” for Amazon and can also be seen in “New Amsterdam,” “This is Us,” “Flack” and “House of Lies.” In addition to her work on screen, she has written numerous personal essays for Town & Country and Refinery 29among many other publications.

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