Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Sandy Rustin’s amusingly nostalgic, tightly-staged THE COTTAGE makes for breezy, diverting summer fluff

• By drediman
• August 22, 2023
• No Comments

Last night, I attended Sandy Rustin’s The Cottage at the Helen Hayes Theatre (note that the limited run is independent of Second Stage’s 2023/2024 season offerings). The 10-year-old comedy has the distinction of being the first play to open in the 2023/2024 Broadway season and represents one of only a handful of non-musical productions currently playing on the Great White Way. Set in a well-appointed cottage located in the English countryside during the early 1920s, the play tells the story of three British couples as they navigate love and betrayal — all during the course of a single eventful day. 

In essence, The Cottage is a cheeky, breezy work written confidently and comfortably both in the urbane comedy of manners mold of the works of Noël Coward, as well as in the style of other farcical screwball comedies of yesteryear (e.g., Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off). Indeed, that the amusingly nostalgic play breaks no new ground isn’t a surprise at all, and can in fact be viewed as a badge of honor of sorts. The Cottage has no pretensions of being anything than what it claims to be — a light-as-fluff summer diversion that aims solely to entertain. Although some may find the play to be shamelessly derivative and watching it to be the equivalent of unsatisfyingly consuming empty calories, any reservations about the work are neither here nor there when presented with a production as tightly drilled as the one currently to be found at the Hayes.

As directed by Jason Alexander (of Seinfeld fame), the handsome production is a well-oiled laugh machine that strikes comic gold time and time again. Technically speaking, the relentless physical comedy is impeccably choreographed and vigorously incorporated into the proceedings. Thankfully, the uniformly strong cast — led giddily by Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack and the sensational, much-missed Laura Bell Bundy — has the uncanny comedic timing and abundance of personality to pull it all off with crowd-pleasing aplomb.

RECOMMENDED

THE COTTAGE
Broadway, Play
Helen Hayes Theatre
2 hours, 5 minutes (with one intermission)
Through October 29