“Uncle Vanya” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (Photo: Marc J. Franklin)

Sad, complicated people rarely make good company in life, but in the world of a play, there’s no one with whom you’d rather spend time. Anton Chekhov understood that perhaps better than anyone, which explains why his sardonic comedy-dramas remain catnip to creatives. The latest Broadway bow for the legendary Russian realist, a new adaptation of Uncle Vanya at Lincoln Center Theater, balances grandeur with intimacy, in a sharp version by Heidi Schreck that gets to the heart of Chekhov’s unfulfilled lives without sacrificing the poetry of his language of storytelling.

Uncle Vanya receives a lot of stage time in New York, and most recent productions have realized the work in miniature. Annie Baker’s grungy translation for Soho Rep in 2012 and Richard Nelson’s mumblecore reworking in 2018 both had their virtues, though there was no escaping that these were deeply personal interpretations of the play. A revival last summer took place in a Manhattan loft, erasing the distance between the audience and the performers.

Lila Neugebauer’s production of Schreck’s new version, performed on the large stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater, refreshingly gives the action some room to breathe. Mimi Lien’s elegant set captures the expansiveness of the Russian countryside in the first half, before returning to the claustrophobic environs of the family estate for the second. (The production places the action in a nebulous contemporary period, complemented by Kaye Voyce’s stylish and character-defining costumes.)

With precise detail under Neugebauer’s direction, the characters complain and recriminate throughout the early scenes, and their resentments come to a boil in a manner both theatrically thrilling and achingly real. Group scenes unfold with taut tension, while private asides unfold with a knowing rapport. Only a gratuitous employment of theatrical rain effects—which feels like a throwback to a dozen British imports from the mid-2000s—feels like a false move in terms of staging.

In a strong Broadway debut, Steve Carell presents a Vanya who uses humor as a shield for bitterness. He shows the caring and compassionate side of the character through his affection for his niece Sonya (Alison Pill), and how his pining for the beautiful Elena (Anika Noni Rose) represents another degradation in a life of deferred dreams and mounting resentment. Carell trades on the mirthful talents that made him famous without going overboard. He provides enough levity to remind the audience that Chekhov’s plays are comedies at heart, but his actions are grounded in a deep sense of existential longing. Vanya’s meltdown at the selfishness he endures at the hands of others feels, as it should, like a cry for the world to simply acknowledge and recognize him.

Carell’s performance is aided by a strong supporting cast. Alfred Molina, returning to the New York stage after too long an absence, strikes the right pompous note as Vanya’s self-absorbed brother-in-law Alexander. His plummy diction and rounded English accent do well to separate him from the rest of the people who live on his estate, whom he views as beneath him. William Jackson Harper brings the right note of world-weariness to Dr. Astrov, the Chekhov stand-in, and his every line emerges with layers of meaning.

Rose initially seems stilted as Elena, Alexander’s younger and mysterious second wife, but as the performance progresses, she settles into a wry, knowing sensibility about the state of her marriage and her life. Similarly, Pill’s Sonya comes across as affected and nervy in early scenes before finding its center as she resigns herself to a life of hard work with little reward. Mia Katigbak and Jonathan Hadary provide superb comic relief (and more than a few poignant moments) as the estate’s servants; only Jayne Houdyshell, as Vanya’s flighty mother, seems unnecessarily arch.

Schreck’s treatment of the script contains little excess weight, and the production hums along crisply until the shattering final moments. The final scene always takes my breath away, and here, with Carell’s Vanya silently reassuring Pill’s grief-stricken Sonya, it was clear that a true emotional catharsis had been achieved.