Plaza Suite – Savoy Theatre, London

Writer: Neil Simon

Director: John Benjamin Hickey

With breathtaking views across Central Park, the Plaza Hotel has come to symbolise the height of Manhattan luxury and elegance. Therefore, it seems fitting that this revival of Neil Simon’s 1968 play set there should be staged at a theatre annexed to the Savoy, one of London’s equivalent locations. The production arrives with tickets that could just be affordable for paying guests at these hotels and the big question is whether or not the show matches their five-star ratings.

Simon was the unchallenged King of Broadway comedy in the 1960s and 1970s, but his success in the West End has been less consistent. Presumably hoping to transform the late writer’s fortunes on this side of the Atlantic, director John Benjamin Hickey’s production boasts the star casting of real-life married couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker and, playing three roles each, they are certainly made to work their shifts.

Set designer John Lee Beatty’s gleaming representation of Suite 719 at the Plaza draws gasps from the audience as the curtain rises and it also sends out an early message that this will be an utterly conventional staging of the play, or rather the three separate plays that have only the setting in common.

Visitor from Mamaroneck is the first and longest of the segments. Sam and Karen Nash, having moved into the hotel temporarily while their home is being redecorated, are celebrating their 23rd or 24th wedding anniversary in the same suite where they spent their honeymoon, or maybe in the one below it. Parker excels here as the scatterbrained, attention-seeking wife and mother who is losing her grip on both roles, fumbling around to find ways to respond to her husband’s supposed infidelity with his secretary. Broderick has little to do but return the volleys fired at Sam and look as glum as if this is Ferris Bueller’s off day. The jousting runs out of steam midway, needing Hickey to inject more pace and energy to enliven the comic interplay and compensate for the absence of topicality in the social and cultural references.

Visitor from Hollywood is an odd little snack, sandwiched between two main courses. Broderick is Jesse Kiplinger, a lecherous three-times divorced film producer who invites a married woman, Muriel Tate (Parker) to the suite, hoping to re-light a flame from 17 years earlier. Muriel knows why she is there, but puts up token resistance before becoming intoxicated by Jesse’s name-dropping and the thought that she is one degree of separation from Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, etc. This is a lightweight, only mildly amusing seduction comedy from the pre-Harvey Weinstein age and, looked at from a modern perspective, it makes rather discomforting viewing.

In true Broadway tradition, Simon leaves the best till last. The Visitor from Forest Hills sees Roy and Norma Hubley checking in for the wedding of their daughter. Their problem is that, with the ceremony ready to start, daughter has locked herself in the bathroom. Simon now switches to a broader style of comedy, including slapstick, which suits Broderick perfectly. He milks the laughs as the beleaguered Roy, frantically counting the mounting cost of the reception downstairs. Parker is also hilarious as the mother fussing over the details of her own wedding outfit while overlooking the fact that there could be no wedding at which she can display it.

Overall, this revival is a mixed bag with a glittering exterior. It is lavish, starry and it oozes class, but it also carries several reminders that all that glitters is not gold.

Runs until 13 April 2024