Playwright Christopher Durang to star in role he wrote for ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Playwright Christopher Durang (Photo: Susan Johann)

Playwright Christopher Durang, who won his first Tony Award in 2013 for his Broadway comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, will make his debut in the role of Vanya when the play is presented at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope. The production will run from July 17 to Aug. 10, it was announced.

The cast of the play, which is set in Bucks County, will feature Durang (in the role performed on Broadway by David Hyde Pierce), and Marilu Henner, best known for the long-running TV series Taxi. In Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Henner plays a B-movie star, and Durang portrays her long-suffering brother. Additional casting will be be announced.

The production is directed by Sheryl Kaller, director of Terrence McNally’s Mothers and Sons at Bucks County Playhouse.

An accomplished writer and actor, Durang is not the first playwright to perform in his own work at Bucks County Playhouse — he follows in the footsteps of Thornton Wilder, who made his acting debut in his landmark play Our Town 75 years ago when the Bucks County Playhouse first opened.