About the Play:

Plaza Suite has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

Plaza Suite is a full-length comedy by Neil Simon. Hilarity abounds in this portrait of three couples successively occupying the same suite at the famed Plaza Hotel in New York City. In Visitor from Mamaroneck, a long-time married couple tries to rekindle their dying spark. In Visitor from Hollywood, a famous film producer is meeting up with his childhood sweetheart. In Visitor from Forest Hills, a nervous bride has locked herself in the bathroom on her wedding day, with her parents desperate to get her out.

Plaza Suite is composed of three self-contained one-act relationship comedies, all set in suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel. In the first act, Visitor From Mamaroneck, a troubled suburban couple attempts to return to the scene of their honeymoon to recapture the love they once felt 23 (or was it 24?) years ago and was yesterday the anniversary, or is it today? This wry tale of marriage in tatters is followed by Visitor From Hollywood, the tale of a Hollywood movie producer who, after three marriages, is looking for fresh fields. He calls a childhood sweetheart, now a suburban housewife, for a little sexual diversion. Over the years she has idolized him from afar and is now more than the match he bargained for. Plaza Suite ends on a high note with one of his funniest short pieces, Visitor From Forest Hills, which revolves around a married couple on their only daughter's wedding day. Last-minute jitters expose the universal risks and rewards of love and marriage. In a rush of nervousness, the panicked bride has locked herself in the suite's bathroom and refuses to leave. Her explosive father and frantic mother are fighting about the best way to get their daughter out of the bathroom and down to the ballroom where guests await her or as mamma yells, "I want you to come out of that bathroom and get married!" This still rib-tickling, still relevant collection of three short plays gives everything from slapstick comedy to surprisingly touching moments.

Plaza Suite premiered in 1968 on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre and ran for over 1,000 performances. This Tony-nominated Neil Simon classic has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional repertory, middle school, high school, college, and community theatre productions. While the three one-act plays are usually performed as an evening of entertainment, Visitor from Forest Hills is an ideal choice for high school drama contests and one-act festivals.

Cast: 5 female, 7 male (performed on Broadway with 2 female and 3 male)

What people say:

"Wonderfully funny…. The blockbuster (3rd playlet) is the wildest and most uproarious farce I have seen on a stage." — New York Daily News

"Set the town laughing." — New York Times

"A wonderfully happy and gratifying evening of sheer entertainment... Richly funny." — New York Post

Neil Simon (1927-2018) was America's most prolific playwright. He had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He was showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer, and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. His plays have been produced in dozens of languages, and in 1983 became the only living playwright to have a New York theatre, the Neil Simon Theatre, named in his honour. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit.