A posh country estate where half a dozen lovers unveil their infidelities is the setting of “The Cottage,” which opened at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater tonight. Set in 1923, this comedy of manner…
’s Beau. The play opens on the two of them preening and mugging the morning after their annual night of athletic bliss. Sylvia is so deliriously pleased, in fact, that she’s just sent breakup telegrams to their better halves. Only it turns out that their spouses, Clarke and Marjorie , are shagging each other, too, and more than just once a year — Marjorie is pregnant .
Sending up social mores will resonate as long as anyone presumes that human desire could ever play by rules. Monogamy is tough, no match is perfect, and people have sex society says they shouldn’t. A new comedy set a century ago might retread such well-worn territory with any number of questions posed in retrospect — about sexuality, gender roles, patriarchy, capitalism, or any logic of manners, really. The most profound question approached by “The Cottage” is whether soulmates exist.
The production, under Alexander’s direction, works feverishly to mine laughs from repeated sight gags and from performances turned up to 11 that have nowhere to go. McCormack, who makes a believable-enough gigolo, is both underused and overshadowed. Bundy is as nimble and confident as an Old Hollywood star, swathed in blonde finger-waves and ludicrously glamorous night clothes .
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