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| Billy Magnussen and Sigourney Weaver |
Shalita Grant is
the housekeeper, Cassandra, who predicted this would happen. Kristine Nielsen’s
Sonia lives for the sighting of the blue heron on the lake. Pushed to extremes,
Nielsen’s Sonia keeps the audience under her wing. Hyde Pierce is glacially calm
and understated until he explodes. Everyone gets a satisfying chance to go nuts
before it’s over.
They regress all
the way to childhood and back, everyone except for Masha’s much younger
boyfriend, Spike, played as epically inappropriate by Billy Magnussen. Could
the part of Masha possibly be as cool without Sigourney Weaver’s insouciant smile? Oh, Sigourney, let’s go to Moscow!
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike touches on upstairs-downstairs dynamics, sibling
rivalry, and the effects of aging as a family fences with and lusts after one
another. Durang wrote the play, which was first performed Off-Broadway in 2012,
with these actors in mind.
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| Bond 45 Prosciutto and Buratta |
Bond 45, which
seats 220, advertises on a billboard above Theatre Row, with a menu that includes paper-thin
designer pizzas and the flat “lasagna” made from the hard-to-handle fazzoletto (handkerchief) pasta. Soft-shell crab had a
creamy sauce on top that was Paula Deen-ish calorically. Their 16 oz.
homemade Buratta is delectable surrounded by colorful, grilled antipasto-bar
vegetables.
The mezzanine offered a spectacular view
of the massive restaurant. It seems a good place to go on your own – many
people were solitary and contented. Such a big place, it can be spaced out and
unusually quiet, preventing that curse of the solo diner – unintentional
eavesdropping on the people at the next table. Homemade brittle and cookies hot
from the oven are offered as you say farewell.
There is, loosely
speaking, a plot. Our young critic, Arden Wolfe, age 7, understood it better
than we did. Arden liked “the girl with orange hair and red lips, who fell in
love at the end, and the evil guy, who turned two squiggly men into porcupines.”
She also admired, as we did, the “glow-y costumes.”
Artist
of Light: iLuminate is
the idea of Miral Kotb, who combined her talents as a choreographer and
software engineer to make a special-effects, techno party-like event. It is
parent-friendly, with cocktails served at your seat. Special effects we gasped
over: a giant dog, exchangeable heads, a dancing paintbrush, and floating
bodies. Children relate to the sheer power and physicality of Kotb’s team.
Performers don’t exit the stage so much as disappear.
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| Root beer float at Junior's |
Junior’s
Times Square opened in 2006 so that Manhattanites could have a taste of this
Brooklyn institution, famous for its cheesecake and pastrami and corned beef sandwiches on rye, served with
complimentary coleslaw, beets and pickles. A Reuben with a side of
Russian dressing hit the spot. Arden’s root beer float was “perfect,” the
mac and cheese quickly consumed, and pronounced, “Creamy, creamy, creamy.”
Centrally located
in the theatre district, Junior’s has quick service, reasonable prices, and outdoor seating for warm weather. Your
kids will thank you.
