Check out Edge’s ‘Plaza Suite’
Published 11:12 am Monday, March 3, 2008
A person visiting New York in 1970 could have attended three Neil Simon comedies playing on Broadway at the same time — “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “Promises Promises” and “Plaza Suite.” This would have been a record for a playwright, except that Simon himself had already established the record three years earlier when he had an astonishing four shows running simultaneously.
“They’re not only tremendously funny shows,” said Michael Kelley, artistic director of Edmonds’ Edge of the World Theatre, “they’re tremendously enduring. Writers have been trying to top those older Neil Simon comedies for 40 years and almost never succeed.
“Which is why we keep bringing back the great ones, the really funny ones. Like Plaza Suite.”
The comedy takes place in one room of the Plaza Hotel in New York — Suite 719. There are actually three different plays, in that each Act places another group of people in the suite, unrelated to each other and on different days.
“I don’t know which playlet is my favorite,” Kelley laughed. “The first one, you’ve got a woman who finds out her husband is cheating on her, but who won’t get mad. She decides to forgive him – over and over till he goes nuts.
“And next is the Hollywood producer who calls up his high school girlfriend. He knows she idolizes him so he thinks she’s going to be an easy mark for a quick affair in the hotel room – except she turns the tables on him and almost gives him a heart attack.
“But I really think the grand prize has to go to the third one.”
The third act finale takes place on the morning of a huge wedding, one of the costliest ever held at the Plaza. In Suite 719 the two apoplectic parents-of-the-bride are yelling at each other. The problem? Their darling daughter has locked herself in the bathroom at the last second and refuses to go to the ceremony. Now Mom and Dad must devise some way, wild horses included, to get her out of the bathroom and up the aisle — if they can only keep from killing each other in the meantime.
The format was so successful with audiences that Simon wrote three more comedies (California Suite, London Suite, and Hotel Suite) in the same manner, but “Plaza Suite” remains the most popular.
The production runs 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings through May 27. There are also matinees each Saturday. Tickets are $22 for adults and $19 for seniors. Reservations and information may be had by calling the box office 206-542-PLAY (7529). Edge of the World Theatre is located at 9667 Firdale Avenue in south Edmonds.
