Two-time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick and two-time Emmy Award winner Sarah Jessica Parker will return to Broadway in the first-ever New York revival of Neil Simon's classic comedy about marriage, Plaza Suite, in a production by Tony Award winner John Benjamin Hickey.
Plaza Suite will mark the first time Broderick and Parker will share a Broadway stage since the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. This event will also mark Broderick's return to the words of Neil Simon, having won his first Tony Award for creating the role of Eugene Jerome in Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, followed by its sequel, Biloxi Blues.
Two world-class actors play three hilarious couples in this uproarious and piercing look at love and marriage from legendary playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner Neil Simon. This new production will mark the first revival of a Neil Simon play following his passing last August at the age of 91. He is remembered as one of the most celebrated, successful and beloved writers in Broadway history having written more than 30 plays and musicals.
The third play climaxes with various comic lazzi that Simon could have borrowed from Goldoni, if there were seventh-floor hotel rooms in 18th-century Venice. It's a bummer when it finally turns back into a Simon relationship play, with some limp observations about these youth today. Is this a flaw in the original, or in this revival? It's tricky to work out, since so much depends on rhythm. In all three plays, Hickey and his actors have found many little moments for physical comedy - Muriel sometimes kicks her legs like a colt trying to get to its feet, Roy clearly has a twingey back - but these jolts are rarely enough to create a sustained energy. The same is true for the evening as a whole. I know you can't wander around rewriting Neil Simon, but maybe they could have just ... skipped the middle one-act? That one's a cold cocktail frankfurter, I'll tell you that.
If one goes into Studio 54 expecting a dusty old collection of boulevard comedies, they are in for a real surprise and a real treat. These are truly funny comedies of manners-usually bad manners-that have aged quite well, and Parker and Broderick are in top form, keeping things fresh and moving. Parker in particular gives a virtuoso comic performance. In each play, she moves easily from landing a subtle comic line to broad physical comedy to some very touching moments. And all the time, she keeps any Carrie Bradshaw mannerisms under wraps. She just has to come back to Broadway more often.
1968 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2022 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2024 | West End |
London Production West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | Sarah Jessica Parker |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | Jane Greenwood |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Jane Greenwood |
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