The transfer from Broadway of Neil Simon’s 1968 play, Plaza Suite, to London’s Savoy Theatre raised a few eyebrows because of its top tier ticket prices. Still, a night at this play is still cheaper than it would have been in New York, and considerably more affordable than a night in a junior suite at the iconic Plaza Hotel, the inspiration for the setting of this comedy.
The higher than usual ticket prices have less to do with the play itself, a genteel if slightly dated comedy, and much more to do with the star casting. Matthew Broderick returns to London following the 2019 run of The Starry Messenger, this time alongside his off-stage wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, making her West End debut.
Told in three acts, Plaza Suite is a triptych of short scenes have little in common with each other, aside from the fact they are all set in room 719 of a luxurious New York hotel. Each scene features a couple, played in all three by Broderick and Parker.
In the first, ‘Visitor From Mamaroneck’ a somewhat dowdy housewife has planned a romantic night with her husband to celebrate their anniversary. She might have got the date wrong, but either way he has other things on his mind, mainly his secretary, Miss McCormack (Charlie Oscar).
This is the longest of the three scenes, and you can tell Simon has used every trick in the book to keep the two characters in the same room, stomping over old ground. But it does give us our first taste of just how good Sarah Jessica Parker is on stage, her Karen Nash is full of passion and energy. By contrast, Broderick seems to play the same character we’ve seen a hundred times before, playing Sam with as much fire as the side salad ordered for dinner.
Things change after the interval with ‘Visitor From Hollywood’, squeezed into a ridiculously tight Austin Powers inspired costume, Broderick loosens up a little playing Jesse Kiplinger, a successful Hollywood Producer trying to woo his high school sweetheart.
This is written pre #MeToo but shows how this kind of behaviour was once played for laughs. Again, Parker shines as Muriel Tate, who may be acting innocently but definitely has stars in her eyes.
A short pause, to allow the actors to change costumes, beautifully designed for the period by Jane Greenwood, then it’s on to ‘Visitor From Forest Hills’, in which Broderick and Parker again play a married couple, this time trying to convince their daughter, Mimsey (Charlie Oscar again) out of the bathroom so she can walk down the aisle at her own, very expensive, wedding.
This is probably the funniest of the three, thanks to some slapstick, and Broderick letting loose far more than in the previous two scenes. But like its predecessors, it’s another that proves a little too long for modern audiences, and left us wishing Mimsey would put an end to our collective waning interest.
Directed by John Benjamin Hickey, there’s no denying this is an impressive revival, John Lee Beatty’s palatial set got it’s own round of applause, so perfectly does it capture the champagne coloured elegance of the hotel room. It’s certainly sumptuous in comparison to the Savoy’s last guests, which had no set at all.
Simon’s writing doesn’t treat the female characters very well, but then the men don’t come off that much better. It gives us a rather bleak view of marriage, albeit through a comedic lens.
As a play, Plaza Suite is showing signs of its age, it won’t have audiences rolling in the aisles but it does have enough to raise a few smiles and a couple of good laughs. But its star cast does make this one of the West End’s unmissable shows, primarily because Sarah Jessica Parker brings sublimity to the city in this powerhouse performance.
