{"id":87510,"date":"2025-11-13T09:11:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=87510"},"modified":"2025-11-13T09:11:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:11:05","slug":"theater-review-neil-simons-plaza-suite-charms-at-long-beach-playhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/theater-review-neil-simons-plaza-suite-charms-at-long-beach-playhouse","title":{"rendered":"Theater Review: Neil Simon\u2019s \u2018Plaza Suite\u2019 charms at Long Beach Playhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays. Or sign up<\/a> for our Eat See Do newsletter to get it in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Award-winning playwright Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cPlaza Suite<\/a>\u201d is actually three mini-plays all set in the same suite of New York City\u2019s Plaza Hotel in 1968. The six actors who play three different couples are well directed by James Rice to deliver Simon\u2019s sharp and witty lines in laugh-out-loud ways \u2014 making for charmingly entertaining theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hotel suite itself plays a role in each story, composed of a nicely appointed sitting room and separate bedroom, well designed by Greg Fritsche and Donna Fritsche to cover most of the Playhouse\u2019s thrust stage, surrounded by the audience on three sides. Christina Bayer\u2019s 1960s-style costuming immerses us further into the time and place of the stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the first, Lisa J. Salas plays Karen Nash, a wife keen on reigniting a spark with her husband Sam (Todd Rew, well cast) on their anniversary. She arrives early, unpacks a negligee and orders champagne for the room. He arrives with a briefcase full of contracts to review for his high-powered job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam attempts to work while Karen encourages him to take a day off to celebrate, though he says the anniversary is actually tomorrow and she has no head for numbers. As Karen subtly chases Sam around the suite trying to convince him, she counters everything he says with a droll response, making us laugh and also sympathize with her. Whether he gives in or not depends on something else entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second play, Ryabrae Ngaida is absolutely delightful as flighty New Jersey mom Muriel Tate, arriving at the suite to meet Jesse Kiplinger (Charlie Rodriguez), whom she dated in high school and is now a famous movie producer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left: Ryabrae Ngaida and Charlie Rodrigez in Long Beach Playhouse’s “Plaza Suite.” Photo by Mike Hardy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Jesse makes moves on her, Muriel variously protests that she can only stay a short time, that she must leave before her husband Larry gets home, that she shouldn\u2019t have another drink \u2014 and then invariably does, and stays. Only all she wants to talk about is everything she\u2019s gleaned from gossip columns about Jesse and the Hollywood stars he works with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actors in both skits look great in their period costuming \u2014 from Sam\u2019s suit to Jesse\u2019s turtleneck and bellbottoms to the women\u2019s dresses. As directed by Rice, they also move about the suite naturally and fluidly. The space feels just confining enough to create tension in that there\u2019s nowhere to go besides the sitting room or bedroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bathroom of the suite figures prominently in the third play \u2014 or at least its door. Behind it, the daughter of Norma (Jessica Plotin) and Roy Hubley (Lee Samuel Tanng) has locked herself away, refusing to go downstairs to get married, despite her parents\u2019 pleas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left: Jessica Plotin and Lee Samuel Tanng in Long Beach Playhouse’s “Plaza Suite.” Photo by Mike Hardy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Plotin and Tanng are hilarious in this crisis situation (both had been in the Playhouse\u2019s \u201cGod\u2019s Favorite<\/a>\u201d last spring, along with Rodriguez), playing up New York accents as their characters jibe at each other and try different tactics to get their daughter out, with Roy comically worried about how much it\u2019s costing him to pay for the musicians and waiting guests\u2019 drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaza Suite\u201d is an overall immersive and entertaining set of plays that will keep a grin on your face, eager to see what happens. The audience becomes voyeurs to what\u2019s going on privately in the suite in each of these well-drawn plays. One ends sort of sadly, one happily and one perhaps inevitably. It\u2019ll be a pleasure for you to see which is which.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaza Suite\u201d continues through Nov. 29 at Long Beach Playhouse,<\/i> 5021 E. Anaheim St., with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-494-1014 or visit <\/i>LBPlayhouse.org<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPlaza Suite\u201d is actually three mini-plays all set in the same suite of New York City\u2019s Plaza Hotel in 1968.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":87513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32310],"class_list":["post-87510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87516,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87510\/revisions\/87516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87510"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=87510"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=87510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}