'Plaza Suite': Parker & Broderick in fun reboot

‘PLAZA SUITE’: Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick. Photo: Joan Marcus.

PLAZA SUITE
Written by Neil Simon
Directed by John Benjamin Hickey
Through June 26, 2022
Hudson Theatre
141 West 44th Street
(855-801-5876),www.PlazaSuiteBroadway.com

By David NouNou

In the Hudson Theatre’s lobby, there is an impressive wall full of theatre posters (by my count 33), displaying all of Neil Simons plays and musicals. The man was indeed prolific, starting in 1960 with Come Blow Your Horn to his last Broadway play 45 Seconds From Broadway in 2001. Most of them were extremely successful: the likes of Barefoot in The Park, The Odd Couple, Promises, Promises and Plaza Suite, which originally starred George C. Scott and the legendary Maureen Stapleton. As I was reading all the names of his shows, I was astounded that so many of them, as remarkable and hilarious as they were in their day, now seem so dated and frozen in time. Plaza Suite is no exception. What keeps it afloat is the joyous buoyancy of the real-life husband-and-wife team of Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Act I: “Visitor From Mamaroneck” has Karen Nash (Ms. Parker) coming to the Plaza Hotel to celebrate her 24th anniversary in suite 719, the same suite in which she spent her wedding night. She is waiting for her husband Sam Nash (Mr. Broderick) to arrive. In the course of their time together that afternoon, Sam informs her they are celebrating their 23rd anniversary, they were in suite 819, and Karen finds out Sam is having an affair with his secretary. She is dismayed by the fact that he’s so typical, as to have an affair with his secretary; she expected more of him.

Act II: “Visitor From Hollywood” features Jesse Kiplinger (Mr. Broderick), a big-shot Hollywood producer in town for a deal, staying at the Plaza Hotel in Suite 719, awaiting his former girlfriend from 17 years earlier, Muriel Tate ( Ms. Parker) from New Jersey. Jesse is a letch. Muriel is lovely, sweet, innocent, married and enthralled by Jesse’s career and his associations with names like Lee Marvin, and Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow (now there’s a couple I bet you forgot they were married to each other; dated factoid). The hilarity ensues when their roles get reversed.

Act III: “Visitor From Forest Hills” focuses on Norma Hubley (Ms. Parker) and Roy Hubley (Mr. Broderick) in Suite 719 where their daughter is to be married at the Plaza Hotel that afternoon. Their daughter, Mimsey, has locked herself in the bathroom and refuses to come out. The merriment for the audience is all the travails the Hubleys go through to try to lure Mimsey to unlock the bathroom door.

It’s never fair to compare different sets of actors in the roles they play. George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton were galvanizing in their parts in 1968. In 2022, it’s refreshing to see an actual married couple play these roles.

In Act I, it is Ms. Parker’s Karen who is full of life, energy and excitement, coming to New York to celebrate her anniversary, only to have her heart broken by her husband, Sam. Ms. Parker is the glue here that keeps this act afloat. Mr. Broderick as Sam, having a mid-life crisis by having an affair with his secretary, is so passive and monotone that you would think Karen would be glad to get rid of him. What’s missing in this act is Sam’s strength and determination and Karen’s heart-wrenching fear and vulnerability of losing Sam to a younger woman. He is too weak and she is too strong.

In Act II, they both ace their parts. Mr. Broderick as the Hollywood letch Jesse, and Ms. Parker as the innocent, ditsy Muriel, are perfection. It’s a laugh riot from start to finish.

Act III was always the overwrought section of slapstick comedy. Ms. Parker as the mother of the uncooperative bride is in a constant state of a breakdown, and Mr. Broderick as the frazzled father of the bride uses physical energy he never displayed before trying to break down the bathroom door to get his daughter out of there and get her married.

It is a joy to watch Ms. Parker and Mr. Broderick playing in a fun show together. They know each other’s rhythms and it is a pleasure to watch them banter, seduce, and bicker with each other. Also, I’m a thrilled to report that Ms. Parker plays three characters with each having a distinct tonal voice and personality and none of them resemble Carrie Bradshaw from “Sex and the City” as she offers appropriate mannerisms for each of her characters. Kudos to both of them for the laughs they provide.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 31, 2022
Reviewed at March 30, 2022 press performance.