Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce are teaming up to play siblings this autumn as both make a return to the stage in a Chekhov-inspired play.
Weaver, a three-time Academy Award nominee, and Tony Award-winning Pierce will star in Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
The play, which takes characters and themes from Chekhov and sets them in present day Pennsylvania, will start life at the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey, US, before jumping to Lincoln Centre Theatre in October.
In the play, Vanya (Pierce) and his stepsister have stayed home to take care of their ailing parents while their movie star sister Masha (Weaver) has been touring the world. Sparks fly at a family reunion.
Weaver, who met Durang when both attended Yale University’s School of Drama, has been in a Durang play before — starring on Broadway in his Sex and Longing in 1996. Weaver and Pierce have both been in the playwright’s Beyond Therapy, but she was in an off-Broadway 1981 version and he took it to Broadway in 1982.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run from September 7 through October 7 at the McCarter Theatre. Previews at Lincoln Centre begin on October 25 with an opening set for November 12 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre.
It will be directed by Nicholas Martin. The rest of the cast will be made up of Genevieve Angelson, Shalita Grant, Billy Magnussen and Kristine Nielsen.
Weaver, whose Broadway credits include Hurlyburly in 1984, is working on the USA series Political Animals. Her notable film credits include Alien, Avatar, Working Girl and Ghostbusters.
Four-time Emmy Award-winner Pierce has spent a lot of time on stage since the end of his sitcom Frasier, including Broadway stints in Spamalot, Curtains, Accent on Youth and La Bete.
