BRITISH COMEDY TAKES THE STAGE AT CUMBERLAND THEATRE

Broadway Hit, The Cottage, will open this week

The Cumberland Theatre will continue their 37th season with the play The Cottage which will open Friday, June 6th and run for three weekends. A special preview performance will be held on Thursday, June 5th at 8:00 pm. Following that, Friday and Saturday performances will begin at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm.

Called “a comedy behind closed doors” and written by Sandy Rustin (who also wrote CLUE on Stage, which CT produced in 2022), the play begins with Sylvia and Beau, who find themselves in an English countryside cottage for their yearly rendezvous, and Sylvia knows this time it will be the beginning of their new life together. But when Beau demurs on a shared future, and their spouses arrive at the cottage, she realizes that this home-away-from-home is a refuge for determining a new path forward. With a tip of the hat to Noël Coward and sex comedies of the past, the true meaning of fate, identity, and marriage are called into question as a surprising, hilarious web of secrets unravels in this ridiculous - potentially murderous - uncharacteristically feminist, 1923 British tale of sex, betrayal, and oh yes, love.

The play opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre on July 24, 2023, after beginning previews on July 7. The Broadway production was directed by Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and starred Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) and Laura Bell Bundy.

The Cumberland Theatre production is being directed by guest director Rebecca Wahls, who directed last season’s production of The Play That Goes Wrong. The ensemble cast features Matt Baughman (last seen in The Play That Goes Wrong), Kiersten Gasemy (last seen in It’s a Wonderful Life), Samantha Kennedy (last seen in The Holiday Channel…), Kimberli Rowley (CT’s Artistic Director), Alex Stompoly (last seen in The Play That Goes Wrong) and Will Poost who is making his CT debut.

The design team includes Maggie Jackson (scenic design), Brendon McCabe (lighting design), Jennifer Clark (costume design) and Jaiden Courrier (sound design). Nicole Mattis is serving as dialect coach and Brian Records as the fight director. The show is being stage managed by Dominick Borges with Marcus Hardinger serving as Assistant Stage Manager.

Tickets are available on cumberlandtheatre.com or by calling the box office at 301.759.4990. The show contains some mild sexual inuendo and smoking. Parental discretion is advised.