My Review: Broadway Comedy 'The Cottage' with Eric McCormack
The show: “The Cottage” at the Hayes Theatre (formerly the Helen Hayes Theatre) on Broadway
What makes it special?: It’s a new comedy and that’s been a too-rare occurance on Broadway. Comedy is hard, after all, and you clearly know for sure when it’s not working — by the audience’s lack of laughter for one. This show stars Eric McCormack (“Will and Grace”) and Laura Bell Bundy (who played Elle Wood in the Broadway musical “Legally Blonde.”) Also Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”), who certainly knows comedy, directs.
Not a bad line-up so far: Nope and the actors, for the most part, do their best to enliven this two-act play. Alexander’s staging keeps things brisk, too, and there are a few inspired bits. Trouble is, it’s not a well-made comedy. When the laughs come (and they do) it’s through certain physical bits of business, a few running gags. or through the sheer verve of its cast, not through artful construction, which is what great comedy should be.
Doesn’t laughs count though?: Oh, yes but when you really take a closer look at the script by Sandy Rustin, it just doesn’t have the right comic tension for a classic comedy.
Meaning?: The stakes aren’t high for these domestic characters in the adulterous-filled plot.
Which is about….?: OK, bear with me. Set in 1923, Beau and his sister-in-law meet once a year to have a fling at his mother’s English cottage. But soon Beau’s brother Clarke (Alex Moffat) arrives for his own fling with Beau’s wife Marjorie (Lilli Cooper) — who is very pregnant. They have been having an affair — and not exacty annually. When both affairs are revealed you’d thing that would be the end of it — everyone now gets what they want, right? But then Beau’s other mistress Dierdre (Dana Steingold) shows up. Dierdre announces that she just told her very jealous husband Richard (Nehal Joshi) that she is leaving him because she is in love with Beau — and we learn that he’s on the way to the cottage with murder in mind. The news that she is not the only person B eau desires doesn’t go over well with Sylvia — until it’s discovered that…well, I won’t reveal much more for the few surprises that the plot possesses.
Sounds complicated: A bit — but that’s not the show’s problem. It really doesn’t know quite what it wants to be: a sophisticated drawing room comedy? A farce? A take-off? Something in-between all of those is my guess, which is fine if the the plotting was more deft and the characters were more artfully created. I don’t recall Noel Coward depending so heavily in fart jokes to get a laugh. Still…
Still what? I didn’t not enjoy it. There are some decent laughs.
It’s a joy to watch McCormack who has impeccable timing. And Moffat (from “Saturday Night Live”) goes for the comic gold with his physical schtick. Ms. Cooper — who was brilliant in the recent Encores production of “Oliver!”, doesnt create much of a character here — or make any kind of comic impression —that is until flatulance overwhelms the proceedings.
I also loved the set by Paul Tate dePoo III and his witty show curtain sets the stage —if not the mood — for naughty comedy.
Who will like it?: Those needing a laugh or two or maybe a few more than that. McCormack fans will be well rewarded. And Moffat makes uop for the scriot with his own inventive physicality.
Who won’t?: Those expecting a tighter, brighter script.
For the kids?: The adultrous plotting may be a bit much for the tots and older kids will probably not be that engaged, at least until the farts come flying. Besides, there’s no one in the play in which they would identify — or care about.
