Has your pet changed your life? Have you ever wondered what she's thinking when she stares up at you and tilts her head? Could she have the secret to understanding the world at large and your place in it? Or is she just more interested in how your shoe tastes? The world of a middle-aged New York couple is turned topsy-turvy when the husband brings home an exceptionally engaging canine running loose in Central Park in the hilarious and heartwarming comedy, SYLVIA. This wonderful look into the complexities of love and commitment asks what it truly means to be devoted to your partner... and how do you choose between the love of your life and man's best friend
SYLVIA will star two-time Tony winner ANNALEIGH ASHFORD as Sylvia, Tony Award winner JULIE WHITE as Kate, and Drama Desk Award winner ROBERT SELLA as Tom/Phyllis/Leslie.
No, this not a reinvented version of CAROUSEL that's opened at the Cort, but the first Broadway production of A.R. Gurney's clever and off-beat 1995 comedy, Sylvia. On the surface, the play is about a married man in Manhattan who bonds with a stray dog in Central Park who has a tag around her neck saying Sylvia, and takes her home, much to the consternation of his wife. As scripted, Sylvia is played by a woman dressed in normal clothing that merely suggests her identity as a dog. And while the play is a breezy, hip and sentimental comedy, there's always the visual subtext of a young woman happily and unconditionally fawning over the older man who keeps her at the end of a leash.
Unfortunately, this fantastic comic challenge is a dramaturgical disaster. To begin with, the rules of Sylvia's doghood are unclear and chaotically enforced. At first her English is presented as an approximation of what a human might think a dog is thinking: Barks are rendered as 'Hey! Hey! Hey!' and soulful stares as 'I want to sit near you.' Sometimes, wittily enough, Sylvia responds to Greg's philosophizing with deflections like, 'I wish I could contribute something here, but I just plain can't.' At other times, though, Sylvia speaks like a normal person, and the other characters talk to her in the expectation that she will understand them specifically and rationally. Is she becoming more human, as Ann Roth's witty canine-human crossbreed fashions, moving from a furry sweater and velour bodysuit to a black cocktail dress, seem to suggest? Then why does she switch back to the furry sweater later? I suppose this is all covered under a general talking-animal-comedy indemnification policy, but it does add to the ad hoc feeling of the play, as if it were built to stand for only the two hours it takes to perform and not a second longer. At the stroke of ten, no matter how many shout-outs to Shakespeare it has offered, and despite the lovely Cole Porter tune jammed in for no reason, it collapses instantaneously.
1995 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2015 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Annaleigh Ashford |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Robert Sella |
Videos