Eric McCormack & the cast of ‘The Cottage’ frolic, smoke & booze their way onto Broadway
politicizing of the queer community’s lack of moral decency, The Cottage, which opens at Broadway’s Hayes Theater on July 24, is having a great time with extramarital merriment, heavy drinking, and more cigarette smoking than even the Marlboro Man could endure.Playwright Sandy Rustin (whose stage adaptation of the film Clue is one of the most-produced plays in the U.S., according to her biography) delivers a period farce set in 1923 pastoral England and stars one of the early aughts’ most famous gay-for-pay actors, Eric McCormack.Jason Alexander, who played the famously neurotic George Costanza on Seinfeld for nine seasons, directs a seasoned cast that climbs an uphill battle to excavate witty banter from a predictable plot that rarely stays ahead of the audience.Sean Hayes takes on Golden Age Hollywood personality and pianist Oscar Levant in a new play by Doug Wright.Beau (McCormack) and Sylvia (Laura Bell Bundy) have stolen away to his mother’s summer cottage for their annual fling, leaving behind their spouses — a very pregnant Marjorie (Lilli Cooper) and Beau’s brother Clarke (SNL’s Alex Moffat).
But when Sylvia reveals she’s sent a telegram professing her love for Beau, the jilted spouses descend on the cottage to wreak havoc.Paul Tate dePoo III’s gorgeous scenic design offers an eyeful, so when the plot thickens like an overcooked pottage, one need simply to divert their eyes to the richly upholstered settee, brocade curtains, and if you’re lucky enough to be sitting house left, the offstage trophy room.It’s not long before Dierdre (Dana Steingold) — Beau’s other lover — arrives, followed by her anxious and potentially murderous husband Richard (Nehal Joshi), amplifying the action to a sextet of slamming doors,.
