AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

February 17, 2009 Updates:

Edge New York

Uncle Vanya
Behind the marquee names, a heartfelt and modern production of Chekhov’s melancholy masterpiece.

New York Magazine

Misery Times Two
Uncle Vanya’s jumpy, star-studded Russian melancholy, and Lynn Nottage’s grimly lyric Ruined

ny1

NY1 Theater Review: "Uncle Vanya"

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AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - Uncle Vanya - There Are Moments to Savor in This Uneven Chekhov

New York Times

Provincial Russians, Getting Very Physical
Nothing feels settled in Austin Pendleton’s hyperkinetic new production of “Uncle Vanya,” starring Denis O’Hare, Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

New York Daily News

Chekhov revival is 'clueless'
The revival of "Uncle Vanya" now adrift at the Classic Stage Company is star-studded but rudderless.

Newsday

Review: 'Uncle Vanya,' with Maggie Gyllenhaal
We can feel the space close in on the people in "Uncle Vanya," which opened last night at the tiny Classic Stage Company with a bewitching Maggie Gyllenhaal as the languorous, dangerously bored Yelena.

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of Uncle Vanya at Classic Stage Company
It’s a great time to be Anton Chekhov. In the fall, an English revival of “The Seagull” starring Kristin Scott Thomas received critical acclaim and, more unexpectedly, financial success. At Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sam Mendes’ production of “The Cherry Orchard” with Ethan Hawke and Simon Russell Beale is still running. At Harlem Stage, “Three Sisters” is now in previews.

New York Post

'Uncle' relatively minor revival
The marquee attractions of the new off- Broadway produc tion of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" are Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard (our local equivalent to Brangelina) and Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare ("Take Me Out") in the title role. But the revelation of this revival by the Classic Stage Company is Mamie Gummer...

Hartford Courant

Chehov's 'Uncle Vanya" In Fine Revival

Bergen Record

Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya': Love in all the wrong places

Associated Press

'Uncle Vanya' returns with its sorrow intact

Bloomberg.com

Stymied Gyllenhaal, Miscast O'Hare, Star in `Vanya' Revival: John Simon
A revival of Anton Chekhov’s masterly “Uncle Vanya” by the Classic Stage Company in the East Village proves yet again that the presence of big stage and screen stars doesn’t assure a classic’s success.

Wall Street Journal

In the Land of Nightmares
"Ruined," which chronicles the terrible realities of Congolese life, leaves no doubt that Lynn Nottage is one of the best playwrights we have...
[Also, 'Vanya', 'Aristocrats']

Variety

Review: Uncle Vanya
...Austin Pendleton's helming is physically energetic and far less gloomy than the customary theatrical take, allowing a sterling ensemble to exercise its comedic chops on the scribe's complaining privileged classes. Among these 19th century whiners, Denis O'Hare's Vanya uses an arsenal of neurotic tics to convey his generation's lost dreams and hopeless aspirations.

Back Stage

Uncle Vanya reviewed by David Sheward
Director Austin Pendleton, himself a distinguished interpreter of the title role, wisely avoids the trap of having the inhabitants of the country estate lounge around lazily while moaning about how boring and pointless their lives are

TheaterMania

Review: Uncle Vanya
Denis O'Hare gives a towering performance in Austin Pendleton's near-perfect production of Anton Chekhov's melancholy comedy.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Uncle Vanya
As if Ivan Petrovich didn’t already have enough to worry about! He fritters away his life as a caretaker on an ungrateful professor’s estate. He falls in unrequited love with a young girl who becomes that professor’s wife. Now he can’t even step to the forefront of the play that’s supposed to venerate him in our eyes. Some guys can’t catch a break. . .

nytheatre.com

Review: Uncle Vanya

CurtainUp

Review: Uncle Vanya
This is one of those plays that continues to grow on one so that it will be affective even if a production doesn't live 100% up to one's expectations. The CSC production is no exception.