The Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Noel Coward's Design for Living opens March 15. Joe Mantello directs Alan Cumming, Jennifer Ehle and Dominic West in the Roundabout production of Coward’s play. The show started previews Feb. 17 at the American Airlines Theatre.
As reported, Tony Award winners Alan Cumming (Cabaret) and Jennifer Ehle (The Real Thing) play Otto and Gilda, two-thirds of the comedy's love triangle. Dominic West completes the trio as Leo. Also featured are Marisa Berenson as Grace, John Cunningham as Ernest, T. Scott Cunningham as Henry and Jenny Sterling as Miss Hodge.
Written by Coward in 1932, the “sensuous menage a trois comedy” involves a trio of decadent artists who change partners as they bound through Europe. The burden of Otto and Leo’s competition for Gilda’s attentions forces her to leave and marry a “dependable art dealer,” only to find Otto and Leo back on her doorstep a few years later.
Design For Living first opened on Broadway on Feb. 6, 1933, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, starring Alfred Lunt as Otto, Lynn Fontanne as Gilda and Noel Coward (who also directed) as Leo.
The creative team includes set designer Robert Brill, costume designer Bruce Pask and lighting designer James Vermeulen. A 1984 revival at the Circle In The Square Theatre starred Jill Clayburgh as Gilda, Raul Julia as Leo and Frank Langella as Otto. George C. Scott directed.
During the past few seasons, and coinciding with Coward's centennial, New York has seen productions of Suite in Two Keys, Waiting in the Wings, and the Coward-Gertrude Lawrence revue tribute, If Love Were All. London has been more assiduous in paying homage, staging major West End productions of Private Lives, Hayfever, Song at Twilight and Semi-Monde.
Tickets for Design for Living, which runs through May 13, range from $40-$65 and are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300 or at the box office at the American Airlines Theatre located at 227 W. 42nd St.
