Long Beach is lucky. We have a comedy and a musical opening in local theaters in November, one by a Tony Award-winning playwright and the other by a Grammy Award-winning musician.
Long Beach Playhouse is staging Neil Simon’s 1968 comedy “Plaza Suite” beginning this weekend, which is like three plays in one, all set in the same suite of a New York City hotel.
In the first act, a couple stays in the Plaza Hotel’s Suite 719 — where they’d had their honeymoon — to try to bring a little love back into their fraught marriage. The second act sees a movie producer in the same suite trying to seduce his virtuous childhood sweetheart who is obsessed with celebrities.
And in the third act, a husband and wife are staying in the suite to attend their daughter’s wedding — only she’s locked herself in their bathroom and won’t come out.
Tony Award-winning playwright Simon is known for plays in urban settings that combine comedy with sometimes painful conflict, often within marriages, friendships and families.
The Playhouse had staged Simon’s “God’s Favorite” last spring, about a man who has it all — successful business, mansion, family, servants — until it’s sadly (yet hilariously) taken away by divine forces.
Simon’s humor infuses each act of “Plaza Suite” with laugh-out-loud lines but also common experiences of love, marriage and relationships that evoke compassion, says the theater.
“Each act is brilliantly constructed,” said Sean Gray, the Playhouse’s artistic Director. “Each of the acts has surprises; some are funny, some are sad, but all pull the audience in and hold them there from beginning to end.”
Gray added that the play’s director James Rice is a “master” at drawing out emotions. And executive director Madison Mooney said costumes and set design will be “visually striking.”
“This play exemplifies the saying ‘If walls could talk,’” Mooney said. “And it’s perfect for the month of Thanksgiving. It reminds us to be grateful for what we have and look forward to what comes next.”
“Plaza Suite” will play at Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., from Nov. 1 to 29, with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., with lower-priced previews on Thursday, Oct. 30 and Friday, Oct. 31. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-494-1014 or visit LBPlayhouse.org.
Meanwhile, the Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company, housed in the First Congregational Church of Long Beach at 241 Cedar Ave., is in rehearsals to perform Alanis Morissette’s Tony Award-winning “Jagged Little Pill: The Musical,” inspired by her 1995 album.
Set to open next weekend on Nov. 7, the show will have an “electrifying score, powerful choreography and immersive staging that amplifies the show’s themes of identity, addiction, trauma and what it means to be seen,” according to the theater, bringing “raw energy and contemporary relevance” to local audiences.
The Landmark’s production will be the Southern California premiere of this musical, with its story written by Diablo Cody, who won an Academy Award for the film “Juno” in 2007.
The musical centers on the Healys, a white Connecticut family with an adopted Black daughter, whose seemingly perfect lives begin to unravel around Christmas one year, forcing them to confront hidden issues of substance abuse, addiction, gender identity and sexual assault.
Director Richard J. Martinez — who has followed the musical since its original 2018 run through to its national tour — says the musical is about “finding your voice when the stakes are highest.”
“Each time, I’ve been moved by its raw honesty and musical power,” Martinez says about seeing the musical. “Our Landmark production harnesses that emotional force and pairs it with bold, human-centered storytelling in one of Long Beach’s most acoustically resonant spaces.”
Curtis Heard, the company’s music director, will lead a live band to perform Morissette’s songs, including “You Oughta Know,” “Hand in My Pocket” and “Ironic,” along with a few new tunes composed for the musical.
The Landmark is especially pleased that its artistic director, Megan O’Toole, will return to the stage in a leading role, playing mom Mary Jane (MJ) Healy, “the seemingly perfect suburban mother struggling to hold her family together while navigating her own unspoken crisis,” according to the theater.
“This role pushes me to face the hardest parts of myself and reminds me why I fell in love with this art form in the first place,” O’Toole said. “The courage it takes to face yourself, and the beauty that comes from telling the truth, even when it’s messy.”
The rest of the locally based, 21-member cast also includes the company’s producing director Jay Dysart as MJ’s husband Steve, who has problems of his own.
If you’re squeamish about experiencing the show’s difficult themes in full electric intensity, the Landmark is also rolling out a new concept with this production. Since the venue allows light through its stained-glass windows, the company has not offered matinee performances in the past — but will for this show, in a more accessible “unplugged” version.
“Inspired by Alanis Morissette’s iconic 1999 MTV Unplugged performance and the Broadway production’s appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts — we’re turning sunlight into an ally,” the company announced last week. “These special matinees will offer an intimate, acoustic version of the show: scaled-back staging, softer lighting, and a focus on the music and story at its core.”
The company says the “unplugged” performances will be gentler for those sensitive to light and sound, and also available for lower ticket prices due to reduced technical demands for staging. But if you can make it to a regular performance, you should, the Landmark emphasizes.
“We are investing heavily in a production concept with dynamic lighting and projection in a way never seen before on a Landmark stage,” the company says. “This show is big and bold and yes… it rocks.”
The Long Beach Landmark’s “Jagged Little Pill: The Musical” will play at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach, 241 Cedar Ave., from Nov. 7 to 23, with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m., with the “unplugged” version on Sundays at 1 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-366-0085 or visit LBLandmark.org.