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.
Despite increasingly annoying directorial exaggeration as Daniel Sullivan's production progresses, this one is another anthropomorphic lovefest on Broadway, now with an equally spectacular Annaleigh Ashford as the rescued talking pup. In the opening scene in Central Park, she puts her nose into the hand of a midlife-conflicted man named Greg -- portrayed with the utmost clueless sweetness by Mathew Broderick in his most engaged and endearing performance in a long time...Ashford...creates her physically irresistible doggy self, as did Parker, without a fake tail or phony ears...If only Daniel Sullivan, best known for staging sensitive and serious dramas, did not crush the charm by having Robert Sella overplay the supposed hilarity of four increasingly obnoxious minor characters. Sylvia...should tell him who's the star here.
Think too hard and the whole thing falls apart, or into a kind creepiness as Greg's affections turn obsessive and just this side of sexual (I hope). But in truth, Sylvia might easily have been a red Ferrari or a hot secretary, and Gurney slaps on a happy ending that's pat but at least sympathetic. In 1995, I wrote, 'Sylvia becomes the route through which Greg divorces everything meaningless in his life; it's significant that that does not include Kate.' Robert Sella plays three increasingly annoying characters - Bowser's male owner, a society doyenne and an ambisexual shrink - whose comic relief is vulgar, unnecessary and overdrawn. So leave the deep-thinking cap at home, and settle in for some pleasurable laughs. A lot of them.
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 |
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