“The Cottage” by Sandy Rustin is a warm, fun play set in the countryside village of Moreton-in-Marsh, England 1923, where the six actors are embroiled in one catastrophe after another.
It seems that each sibling can’t keep their hands off each other’s wife. Beau (Eric McCormack) not only has his brother’s wife Sylvia (Laura Bell Bundy) but even another mistress, Dierdre (Dana Steingold). Beau’s brother, Clarke (Alex Moffat) loves Beau’s wife, Marjorie who is pregnant with Clarke’s baby!
As a period piece, the costume design by Sydney Maresca is outstanding and the lighting by Jiyoun Chang captures the very heart of the play. Under the glam lighting, it brings great attention to the excellent scenic design by Paul Tate dePoo lll. Between the three, the cottage is really a lovable place, and the lunatics inside of it make it a must-see!
For the most part, Jerome Butler as dialect coach does a particularly good job as most of the actors capture the accents and the cadence of this British play. The only two problems that I saw with this play were the casting of Lili Cooper as Marjorie. I thought Cooper’s accent, her movements and her “business” were not sufficient in her role. Whereas the other five actors were spot-on in their roles, I thought Cooper was an anchor around the rest of the cast. Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) too, as the director tried too hard for too many laughs. The play on its face is very funny, however, Alexander tries to be overly ridiculous when he doesn’t need to be. Sandy Rustin in her Broadway debut has a winner, the laughs are aplenty! The plot is very creative and keeps the audience fixated on the next shoe to drop. For two hours, evenly spread out over two acts, we are fully entertained with this creative play.
