THE FOREIGNER
BY TOM MURRIN, www.papermag.com
November, 2004


THE FOREIGNER

The Foreigner, Larry Shue's classic farce, marks the return of eternally youthful Matthew Broderick to an Off-Broadway stage, where he is joined by the equally delightful Frances Sternhagen in a play about a socially shy Englishman (Broderick) who takes a holiday in a backwoods U.S. town and stays at a rundown bed-and-breakfast owned by Sternhagen's character. 

"Broderick's character, Charlie, is a fish out of water," says castmember Lee Tergesen. "Initially terrified because he's away from home, and fearing he has no personality, he pretends not to speak English for the first half of the play. But then he starts to develop relationships with the people he's living with, and, out of loyalty, he decides to take action." 

The seven-member cast, directed by Scott Schwartz, includes a "Reverend David" and a brother and sister who also live at the B&B and are plotting to buy the place and fix it up. Tergesen's character "Owen Musser" is a local redneck who "has his sights on taking over the bed and breakfast for his own uses, and comes up with a nefarious scheme that's not very well thought out," says Lee. "He thinks he can mess with Charlie, but eventually he has the tables turned on him." 

The well-written script ensures laughs. Things that are set up in the first act pay off as jokes in the second -- like when everyone is amazed at how fast Broderick's character "learns" English, after a few lessons from the dim-witted brother.

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