Listen, I enjoy the plays of Noel Coward as much as the next Anglophile. Who could fail to appreciate the rapier wit, the keen insight into human behavior, and the sheer silliness of such great comedies as Private Lives, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit, among others. But never once while watching a production of a classic Coward play have I thought that it would be more fun to watch a pastiche, however well executed.
That, unfortunately, is what we now have in the form of The Cottage, a play by Sandy Rustin that has been kicking around for more than a decade (it was presented at the Queens Theater in the Park in 2014). For some reason, a gaggle of producers have decided that this wholly artificial sex farce, one that would have seemed dated in the 1950s, now merits a Broadway run. At least they had the good sense to recruit a talented director, Jason Alexander, and a first-rate cast to give the farcical proceedings an expertly orchestrated, slick comic sheen.
Taking place in a country home in an English village in 1923 (Paul Tate dePoo III’s gorgeous set design seems designed for Instagram), the play concerns the adulterous goings-on amongst a group of British upper-crust types, including well-heeled barrister Beau (Will and Grace’s Eric McCormack) and Sylvia (Laura Bell Bundy, making a much too belated Broadway return fifteen years after Legally Blonde). The pair are enjoying their once-a-year assignation at the cottage when Sylvia tells her lover that she has sent a telegram to both his wife Marjorie (Lilli Cooper, Tootsie) and her husband Clarke (SNL’s Alex Moffat, making a terrific Broadway debut), who happens to be Beau’s brother, informing them of the affair.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Not long afterward, both the heavily pregnant Marjorie and Clarke show up at the cottage to confront their errant spouses, with some predictable and some not-so-predictable wacky complications ensuing. Arriving later are Dierde (Dana Steingold), Beau’s other lover, and Richard (Nehal Joshi), who turns out to be…well, no spoilers here.
The plot, not surprisingly, turns out to be wholly subordinate to the profusion of one-liners (delivered in the sort of over-the-top British accents letting us know not to take anything seriously) and often delicious sight gags, many of the latter revolving around a series of hidden cigarettes and lighters strewn throughout the cottage. There are so many hilarious visual jokes revolving around silly objects (McCormack carrying a stuffed porcupine made me laugh out loud) that the prop master should be billed above the title.
To be fair, The Cottage is funny, often very funny. Under Alexander’s razor-sharp direction (having worked with Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David for so many years, he knows what he’s doing), the ensemble performs with the superb comic timing and delivery of seasoned vaudevillians. Moffat excels at outrageous physical shtick, Steingold does a great drunk act, McCormack executes pitch-perfect slow burns, Bundy gets laughs with practically everything she says and does, and so on. The humor is often far from sophisticated, with one of the highlights being an extended fart joke that would make Mel Brooks blanch and that you certainly wouldn’t encounter in a Noel Coward play.
But the humor is so devoid of reality that the laughs become increasingly strained. The plot twists have little impact since we’re so little invested in the characters or situations, and with its two-hour running time the evening has the feel of an elongated Carol Burnett Show sketch (Harvey Korman and Burnett would have made a great Beau and Sylvia, with Tim Conway as Clarke and Vicki Lawrence as the pregnant Marjorie. But it would have been 8-10 minutes, tops). It’s hard to see exactly who The Cottage is for, since even a first-class Coward revival would have a tough go of it on Broadway without major star power. It’s a play whose ideal audiences have by now passed on to become blithe spirits themselves.
The Cottage opened July 24, 2023, at the Helen Hayes Theatre and runs through October 29. Tickets and information: thecottageonbroadway.com
