Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick deliver three acts of one-liners but few laughs in Broadway’s ‘Plaza Suite’
Welcome to Curtain Call, our mostly queer take on the latest theater openings on Broadway and beyond.Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick star in a revival of Neil Simon’s 1968 play, Plaza Suite, portraying three sets of characters that pay a visit to one of New York City’s most iconic hotels.
John Benjamin Hickey makes his Broadway directorial debut. If you’ve ever splurged on a five-star hotel, only to arrive and find a tray of stale confections on the coffee table with an inkjet-printed note that enthusiastically reads, “Enjoy your stay!”, then you’ll be woefully familiar with that sinking feeling of disappointment after sitting through the belabored revival of Plaza Suite.
While their first entrances (and second and third, as the three-act play wears on) draw an enthusiastic patter of applause, even Parker’s charisma and Broderick’s comedic timing can’t save Neil Simon’s painfully dated riff on relationships and happiness as seen through the eyes of three couples in varied circumstances.
In “Visitor From Mamaroneck,” Parker plays Karen Nash, a middle-aged housewife desperate to rekindle her marriage with her number-crunching husband, whose disinterest has taken a turn toward infidelity.
