Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow
Written by Halley Feiffer
Directed by Trip Cullman
The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theatre Space
June 29, 2019
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

This play just didn’t meet its audience.  I have to say that it is the first play that I have been to in NYC in which 1/5 of the audience just left at intermission.  The premise of the show was really fun.  Imagine the energy of a Chris Durange and the naughtiness of a Joe Orton tackling Chekov’s Three Sisters.  Sounds fun! 

And the cast surely did have fun.  I saw it on one of their first previews, and it was clear that they had each other laughing their collective heads off in the rehearsal room – but when it came to placing it in front of an audience, they just comically hit too many wrong notes and a large group of the audience went from loving them to being against them.  Audiences in comedy are very fickle.  If they sense you are WORKING for the laughs they will just shut down.  

The play started out so fun, irreverent, and playful. The idea of exploring the boredom and misery of the Chekovian countryside, with a wicked bite and dirty mouth is fun for ten minutes or so, but then all those f*** and s*** and p*** and c*** and all the other “*” words become too much.  How many times can you say “fat bitch” and it still be funny?  

The one remarkable event in the play for me came near then end in which Tuzenbach delivers the beautiful monologue before heading off to a duel that will end his life.  This one pice of the play was delivered without any additions – any of those “*” words and it was beautiful.  The entire audience rushed to feel his heart words and the direness of his situation.  They even found humor in the simpleness and irony.

Perhaps Chekov doesn’t need all the gimmick.  Perhaps he is funny and compelling just as written.