Customer Reviews

Plaza Suite; a Comedy in Three Acts

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Plaza Suite, in neil simon style, combines real life messages and upbeat comedy. All three acts show a peak to life and Neil Simon's genius in bringing the characters to life. I was Muriel when I performed in it. I do have a bias, but I have also studied the script in great detail. I am directing Act 2 this year and I chose it for it's heart and comedy. Plaza suite is interesting, funny, and bound to leave you with a good feeling. Even though you see the characters in one setting, you explore many different parts of their lives. The play is character driven, in neil simon fashion and I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a mixture of real-life and comedy. Other Neil Simon play's I recommend are: The Good Doctor, Rumors, London Suite, Sunshine Boys, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and of course Biloxi Blues.

Neil Simon used the same basic premise for three plays: a series of interlocking one-acts that are tied together more by place than by character. In the 1976 California Suite, he presented four stories of four groups staying in different times in Suites 203 and 204 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The play received mixed reviews, and although it ran over four hundred performances it was nonetheless felt to be one of Simon's less successful efforts. In the 1969 The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Simon created three interlocking one acts in which a bored husband seeks to lure women to his mother's empty apartment for sex; like California Suite, the play received mixed reviews, but nonetheless ran over seven hundred performances. But the real star in the series was the original, Plaza Suite, which told three three stories set in suite 719, received sterling reviews, and ran over a thousand performances.

As presented on Broadway, the leading man and leading lady of each one act were played by the same performers: George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton. In the first act, middle-aged Karen Nash rents a suite to recreate her wedding night with husband Sam Nash--but Sam is preoccupied with everything except Karen, and eventually confesses that he is having an affair with his secretary and leaves Karen for an illicit rendevous. In the second act, Jesse Kiplinger, a Hollywood producer with nothing better to do but plot seduction, invites his former high school girl friend, Muriel Tate, to drop by to say hello--and succeeds in overawing her by name dropping. But the most famous of the three stories is the third, which is indeed outrageously funny.

In this act, Roy and Norma Hubley are holding a wedding for their daughter Mimsey at the Plaza--but Mimsey has gotten cold feet, locked herself in the bathroom, and refuses to come out. Roy and Norma bicker, scream at Mimsey through the door, try to break down the door (Roy almost breaks his arm), try to crawl out on the ledge to get into the bathroom window (Roy almost falls to his death), and after much hysteria learn the truth: Mimsey is afraid that after marriage she and her beau will turn out to be like her parents. It is very, very funny stuff.

Unfortunately, it is not funny enough to make up for the preceeding two acts, both of which are safe and sometimes actually ho-hum, and all three acts read as distinctly dated in terms of modern mores. Simon wrote better plays than this, and while it isn't bad, you can do a lot better. Recommended for Simon fans, but few others.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

After listening to "Brighton Beach Memoirs" by the L.A. Theaterworks (same group that produced this title) I was eager to hear "Plaza Suite", especially the third act about the wedding, which is my favorite. The whole play was a disappointment full of bad timing, bad performances, and poor direction. Radio plays (as they were called and this falls into the category of) rely on spoken text as well as sound effects to give the listener a full picture of what's going on. This one fails to do that. The first act, which reies on its text and has few visual gags works the best. In the second act the visuals are just as important as the text but aren't hinted at. The actors just talk. The third act, which is hilarious (rent the movie), relies on its visuals, which are more important than its text. Again, no attempt is made to make the listener "see" what is visually supposed to be happeening. A simple, "Roy, put down that chair!" would've sufficed in one instance. The characterizations are completely wrong and the timing for this comedy is completely wrong. Again, in the third act the Ed Asner and Marsha Mason have the "panic" that makes them sound like they're late for the company picnic rather than their daughter's wedding which is getting later and later in starting becuase she's locked herself in the bathroom. The frantic, panicked pace that is supposed to eventually spin nearly out of control never happens. I was so disappointed with this CD set that I donated it to the library.

I directed this play for my high school and I love it. It's classic Neil Simon. His characters in this play are so real and histercaly funny because they are just normal human beings.

My School is doing this for their play. After reading, I found that Neil SImon's Plaza Suite went nowhere, and at the end it left me gasping for some breathing air.