Arts & Entertainment
Review: 'Sylvia' by Goshen Players
The host of WZBG's 'Backstage with Johnny O' made his directorial debut of a full-length production with this A.R. Gurney comedy.
“If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.” - Twelfth Night Act 3 Scene 4
Goshen, CT - On Tuesday, June 13, 2017, the world lost a beloved American playwright. A.R. Gurney, known to all as “Pete,” died at his home in Manhattan at the age of 86. The playwright, who also had a home in Roxbury, CT, wrote about the foibles of traditional WASP society, a group he knew well because he was one of them. Mr. Gurney was the author of many works embraced by community theatre groups such as ‘The Dining Room,’ ‘The Cocktail Hour,’’ and the two-character ‘Love Letters.’
A.R. Gurney
A bit of a departure for the playwright was ‘Sylvia,’ the work that director John Ozerhoski (the host of 97.3 WZBG’s ‘Backstage with Johnny O’) lobbied to produce with Goshen Players. The comedy is about a middle-aged, middle-class man living in the Upper West Side of NYC who loves a stray dog a bit too much. Greg and Kate are empty nesters who have moved back to NYC after 22 years in the suburbs. Greg finds Sylvia, a street-smart lab/poodle mix, in Central Park and brings her home. The dog, played by an actress, immediately becomes a bone of contention between the couple, and tests their marriage to both hilarious and very touching effect. The play was first produced Off Broadway in 1995 with Sarah Jessica Parker in the role of Sylvia, and it had a revival on Broadway in 2015 starring Matthew Broderick as the dog’s rescuer.
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You don’t have to be an animal lover to love and appreciate this feel-good show. I found it to be the funniest A.R. Gurney work that I have ever seen and kudos to Johnny O for choosing it for the Goshen season and on his impressive directorial debut. Be aware that there is some strong language, mostly by the dog. ‘Sylvia’ runs June 16-25. Tickets at www.goshenplayers.org and seating is cabaret style, thereby limiting tickets available. A portion of the ticket sales will go to benefit The Little Guild animal rescue in West Cornwall, CT. #MustLoveDogs #SylviaGoshen
