The Cottage review: Jason Alexander’s Broadway directorial debut is a knock-knock-knockout

Sex, lies, and several half-finished cups of tea are just a hint of what’s actually happening behind closed doors in Broadway’s new side-splitting screwball comedy The Cottage, which opens at the Helen Hayes Theater on July 24.

The play is a sensational, feminist twist on a classic British period drama that features knockout performances, melodramatic reveals, and some seriously outrageous one-liners. If home is where the heart is, thenThe Cottageis where the mind’s deepest, darkest, and most salacious secrets go to fight and frolic in the fresh air.

It all kicks off when Sylvia (Laura Bell Bundy), a 1920s woman basking in the afterglow of an evening spent with her paramour Beau (Eric McCormack) at his pastoral cottage in the English countryside, decides that she’s ready to take their illicit affair to the next level by penning a series of telegrams notifying her husband, Clarke (Alex Moffat), and Beau’s wife, Marjorie (Lilli Cooper), of their romance. Her bold declaration sets off a chain reaction that leads to a whole host of unexpected visitors, a swordfish casually being used as a weapon, and the truth, eventually, coming to light.

Jason Alexander, in his Broadway directorial debut, keeps the hysterical production —(which also stars Dana Steingold, Nehal Joshi, and Tony Roach) moving at a swift clip to match the natural cadence of playwright Sandy Rustin’s snappy script. His strong stage direction — joined with lighting designer Jiyoun Chang’s well-timed spotlights — keeps The Cottage from collapsing in on itself as its protagonists frenetically buzz in, out, and around Paul Tate dePoo III’s sumptuous set, which is decorated to the nines with elegant tchotchkes, leather-bound books, a chaise lounge, gramophone, and several key family portraits.