The Seagull

Continuing our trend of only sitting in seats that give us tremendous views of actors' bald spots, we attended an amazing performance of The Seagull. Boy, Kristin Scott Thomas's scalp sure can act. (Trust us: our seats were above the lights.) This restaging of Chekhov's 1895 play about unrequited love, boredom, silence, fractured families, vanity, fame, and the problematic fourth wall recently moved to Broadway after a super-successful run in London's West End. We were surprised by its humor, which only gets bleaker as the acts continue: "I'm in mourning for my life," deadpans a young woman draped in black. A few scenes later, the writer Trigorin (played by Peter Sarsgaard) claims the seagull isn't a symbol. He's deliberately oversimplifying, of course, but it's not until the final act that we realized our smiles had turned into grimaces. At the end, we clapped until our hands hurt.