Eclipse Theatre's revival of 'Plaza' is worth checking out
July 22, 2008
by Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
First comes a surprisingly dark tale of a middle-class marriage that has sadly gone sour in the most predictable ways. Next is a comic tale of celebrity worship that now, four decades after it first appeared onstage, seems like a harbinger of a phenomenon to come. And finally, there is a classic case of pre-wedding panic that unfolds in pure farcical style.
Put them all together -- unified by the fact that each successive scenario unspools in Room 719 of the Plaza, one of New York's most fabled luxury hotels -- and you've got Neil Simon's popular triptych "Plaza Suite," which debuted on Broadway in 1968, was turned into a film three years later and is now receiving a spirited revival by Eclipse Theatre. And if you initially groan at the very thought of revisiting Simon's unquestionably mid-20th century, pre-feminist musings on midlife crises and marital (and extra-marital) meanderings, this production suggests there are still some laughs to be had, and that there is some behavior that doesn't change in any appreciable way.
On Broadway, actors George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton played each of the play's three different couples. In the film version, Walter Matthau played all the male leads but was paired with Stapleton, Lee Grant and Barbara Harris. At Eclipse, director Steve Scott has cast each scenario separately, with only the hotel bellhop (a fleet and whimsically efficient J.P. Pierson) doing triple duty. In the process, he has made some ingenious choices in actors.
In "Visitor From Mamaroneck" (a wealthy New York suburb), we meet the devoted if dippy Karen Nash (expertly played by CeCe Klinger). She is a slightly frumpy but energetic woman desperately attempting to rekindle the romance in her marriage to her dyspeptic, calorie-counting businessman husband, Sam (Ted Hoerl, a perfect pill). Sam has been having an affair with his young, capable, attractive secretary (Nora Fiffer). Karen would be far better off without Sam, but that thought is only beginning to dawn on her.
In "Visitor From Forest Hills" (a well-to-do neighborhood in Queens), a plump and ever-bickering couple -- Norma (Cheri Chenoweth) and her husband, Roy (Jon Steinhagen) -- go into a tailspin when their daughter locks herself in the bathroom minutes before her hugely expensive wedding. She refuses to tie the knot, terrified that she and her groom might morph into a couple like her parents.
But it is the "Visitor From Hollywood" that elicits the most laughs. The premise is simple: Seventeen years after they dated in high school, Jesse (a too-youthful Nathaniel Swift, decked out in shaggy hair and love beads) has become a famous Hollywood producer made cynical by three failed marriages, while Muriel (Frances Wilkerson), remains a seemingly unspoiled wife and mother of three still living in New Jersey. On a visit to New York, Jesse, a Peter Bogdanovich type, tries to rekindle old times. Muriel, who has slavishly followed his career and is enthralled by his connection to celebrities, appears to be untouchable (she even wears pert cotton gloves), but after she downs a few vodka stingers she is ready for more than she lets on.
In a deliciously understated hoot of a comic performance, Wilkerson (who would never have been cast in this role in the 1960s, simply because she is black) nails every line and is a perfect mix of prim reticence and moxie minx.
Eclipse's 'Plaza Suite' poignant, unsettling
July 23, 2008
by Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald
Neil Simon's plays may lack the razor-sharp wit of a wordsmith like David Ives, but the hit-maker responsible for "Barefoot in the Park," "The Odd Couple" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lost in Yonkers" certainly knows his way around a punchline. And he never makes audiences wait too long for the next joke.
Populist and prolific, Simon delivers the kind of middlebrow comedies whose mass appeal translates to commercial success and frequent revivals. The latest comes courtesy of Eclipse Theatre Company, which revives Simon's 1968 Broadway hit "Plaza Suite" as part of its 10th anniversary commemoration of its one playwright/one season initiative. The company last staged the play in 2003 as part of its Neil Simon season.
A sometimes chilly comic examination of marital discord, "Plaza Suite" centers on a trio of less-than-happily wedded, middle-aged, upper-middle class couples whose precarious unions and strained relationships play out in vignettes that unfold in the same timelessly elegant suite of New York City's Plaza Hotel. But look beyond the wisecracks and you'll find pathos, which director Steve Scott illuminates quite effectively in this sure-handed, well-cast production. Balancing the play's quietly aching moments with some uproarious slapstick, Scott ably negotiates its shifting moods: the poignant, unsettling tone of the first scene depicting the beginning of the end of a marriage; the amusing and awkward tryst between a woman who craves more and a man who wants less and the farcical conclusion involving a couple who want nothing more than for their daughter to go through with the expensive wedding they've given her.
Simon's 'Suite' starts out somberly, with a couple who find themselves at a crossroads on the eve of their 22nd anniversary (23rd depending on which spouse is counting). The expressive Cece Klinger brings a restless energy and earnestness to Karen, a suburban matron with a sense of whimsy and keen intuition, who tries to rekindle the romance with her husband Sam. Klinger keeps Karen's pain close to the surface. And as the lights come down, she conveys with her stricken expression exactly what her unsuccessful interlude with Sam has cost.
Ted Hoerl brings a measured ambivalence and condescension to the role of Sam, a man whose midlife crisis has turned him into a work-obsessed, health nut and sent him into the arms of his secretary. The subtle tension between Hoerl and Klinger suggest a couple who know the end is near. The more lighthearted second sketch concerns a Hollywood producer (played with practiced self-absorption by Nathaniel Swift, whose shaggy, hair, love beads and rose-tinted glasses suggest a young Peter Fonda) trying to seduce his high school sweetheart (the funny, endearingly prudish Frances Wilkerson sporting the classic 1960s "flip"), a star-struck New Jersey housewife more receptive to his proposition than she cares to admit.
The nimbly paced, perfectly executed final scene (the flat-out funniest of the three) features superb comedic performances from Jon Steinhagen (who earns laughs with an arched eyebrow and fixed glare) and Cheri Chenoweth (fluttery nervousness never gets old) as the increasingly anxious and incessantly bickering parents of a skittish bride who has locked herself in the bathroom minutes before her very expensive wedding fearing that she and her fiance will become her parents. Given the bleak picture Simon paints, she has good reason to be afraid.
Rounding out the cast is J.P. Pierson as the accommodating bellhop and the take-charge groom and Nora Fiffer as the accommodating secretary and the reluctant bride.
The sharply observed "Plaza Suite" may conclude with a farce, but it has substance. And if Simon sends his audience home chuckling, it's only after he's demonstrated in no uncertain terms that marriage doesn't guarantee happily ever after.
A sweet revival
40-year-old Neil Simon comedy shines brightly in Eclipse production
July 25, 2008
by Betty Mohr, Southtown Star
A bubbly confection, "Plaza Suite" is a laugh riot well-timed for summer.
Overflowing with gags, jokes, one-liners and laughable human frailties, Eclipse Theatre's revival of Neil Simon's 1968 comedy is a sparkling gem.
Because audiences were so receptive to "Plaza Suite" when it first opened in 1968, Simon wrote two follow-up, hotel-situated comedies, "California Suite" (1976) and "London Suite" (1995), none of which are as funny as "Plaza Suite."
A blend of bittersweet comedy and riotous farce, "Plaza Suite" unfolds in three separate acts, all of which take place in room 719, a luxury suite in the Plaza Hotel in New York.
Although the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater main stage isn't as large as a hotel suite, Mike Winkelman comes through with a convincing set design that evokes the feeling of a glamorous hotel accommodation.
Comedy is the most difficult of all theater to pull off, but Steve Scott's perfect-timed, golden-touch direction and an ensemble of performers who play their roles straight keeps the show on a continuous crescendo of laughter.
In the first scene of the three-act presentation, Karen (CeCe Klinger) prepares for a romantic evening to celebrate the anniversary of her 20-something marriage (she's not sure whether it's 22 or 23 years) to Sam (Ted Hoerl).
Trouble is that her 51-year-old husband is going through a mid-life crisis.
He watches his weight, health and looks with fanatic care, which, of course, can only mean that he is having an affair with his young secretary.
While that act tugs at one's heartstrings, the second act is a hilarious hoot.
Here we have Jesse Kiplinger (subtle Nathaniel Swift) as a smarmy, womanizing Hollywood film producer trying to bed his old girlfriend, Muriel (a show-stopping performance by Frances Wilkerson).
The seduction scene, in which Muriel is increasingly excited over the Hollywood stars Jesse knows, is a riotous howler.
The final act also is a jaw-breaker.
This act takes place on the wedding day of Mimsey (Nora Fiffer, who also portrays the young secretary), a nervous bride who has locked herself in the bathroom.
Her mother, Norma (a wonderful Cheri Chenoweth), and her father, Roy (a superb Jon Steinhagen), are at their wits end trying to get Mimsey out of the john.
If Mimsey doesn't go through with the marriage, her parents stand to lose the fortune they have paid for the food, the flowers, the photographer and the hotel.
The ending of this act is so funny that I won't ruin the surprise by divulging it.
A crowd-pleasing, slice-of-life comedy, this sweet "Suite" is a delicious treat.