The New York Times - Not Recommended
"...The first thing you see when the curtain goes up on “Plaza Suite” is an aquatint image of that grand hotel in its antique glory. But when it comes to datedness, the faux-French pile that opened its doors in 1907 has nothing on the Neil Simon comedy — itself a faux-French pile — that debuted on Broadway in 1968. Despite the wearying efforts of a likable cast headed by Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, the passage of 54 years is more than enough to reveal the triptych of one-act plays as uninhabitable in 2022."
NY Daily News - Recommended
"...Remarkably, the show is playing pretty much the same soothing role on today’s post-crisis Broadway. It’s an island of comedic calm in a world of hot takes, put downs and bitter Oscar slaps. The real-life coupledom of Broderick and Parker protects all of Simon’s old-school gags; whenever they skirt near some line (like a Hollywood producer pouring vodka stingers to seduce his old girlfriend), they’re really married, you think. So surely it’s all fine."
Associated Press - Somewhat Recommended
"...Even the starry union of Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker - giving the trio of tales an extra bit of electricity since they are, in fact, married - couldn't conceal its infirmities."
Hollywood Reporter - Recommended
"...Broderick and Parker modulate their physical and vocal performances throughout, working up to a hint of crassness that never becomes cartoonish in the final act. If their choice of material is questionable, their commitment to it is not. Parker ultimately walks away with the show; she doesn't lose the mannerisms that have become essential parts of her screen persona, but she molds them into three distinct characters, finding obvious enjoyment in reconnecting with her stage roots."
Vulture - Somewhat Recommended
"...The third play climaxes with various comic lazzi that Simon could have borrowed from Goldoni if there were seventh-floor hotel rooms in 18th-century Venice. It's a bummer when it finally turns back into a Simon relationship play with some limp observations about these youth today. Is this a flaw in the original or in this revival? It's tricky to work out since so much depends on rhythm. In all three plays, Hickey and his actors have found many little moments for physical comedy - Muriel sometimes kicks her legs like a colt trying to get to its feet, Roy clearly has a twinge-y back - but these jolts are rarely enough to create a sustained energy. The same is true for the evening as a whole. I know you can't wander around rewriting Simon, but maybe they could have just ... skipped the middle one-act? That one's a cold cocktail frankfurter, I'll tell you that."
New York Theater - Somewhat Recommended
"...I don’t know that anybody would select “Plaza Suite” as one of Simon’s best, although I imagine that the original director, Mike Nichols, got better performances from the original cast, George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton than current director John Benjamin Hickey has done – and I don’t have to imagine that Walter Matthau made better comic hay of it (along with Stapleton, Lee Grant and Barbara Harris) in the movie."
Variety - Recommended
"...As a reclamation project for a playwright who, a generation ago, was a defining voice in the American theater, "Plaza Suite" has mixed results; it's perhaps challenging news for the Simon legacy that this production, about as successful as one could hope for, makes it over the line by embracing its identity as a period piece. But as a double act for two talented performers with whom the audience has a long and deep relationship, "Plaza Suite" can hardly have been better chosen. The show itself is somewhat lost in time. But Parker and Broderick's chemistry, expertly honed, makes it feel timeless."
Entertainment Weekly - Recommended
"...There's nothing crucial or particularly current about a revival like Plaza in 2022, but they didn't seem to mind. Two years into a pandemic, this crowd mostly seemed happy to celebrate and share a moment of intimacy with actors so well known to us that it often felt as if Carrie Bradshaw and Ferris Bueller and a dozen others were also in the room. When Parker, who arguably carries the play on her small shoulders through sheer ebullient energy, broke during one particularly outrageous bit in Act II and had to turn away briefly, it felt less like a misstep to rush past than a moment of communion: a suite whose fourth-wall breach was, at least on some level, exactly what we came for."
amNY - Recommended
"...Give credit where it's due to Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick for their unshakable commitment to New York theater. In March 2020, "Plaza Suite" was on the verge of beginning preview performances when the shutdown occurred. During the months that followed, the married pair never wavered and firmly insisted that this Broadway revival of Neil Simon's 1968 comedy (in which they co-star as different couples in three different one-act plays) would return when Broadway reopened - and indeed it finally has."
Washington Post - Highly Recommended
"...It turns out to have been a stroke of retro genius, plunging Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick into Neil Simon's 1960s relationship scrimmage, "Plaza Suite." The merry old time this seasoned pair of married comic actors seems to be having settles over us, too, in the Hudson Theatre, where the revival marked its official Broadway opening Monday night."
Time Out New York - Recommended
"...Neil Simon's Plaza Suite is back on Broadway, and the title character looks great. When the curtain goes up, the set gets entrance applause; designed by John Lee Beatty, that master of envy-inducing decor, it has a golden glow of classic luxury. Simon's hit 1968 trilogy of short comedies, about three different couples in Room 719 of a ritzy Manhattan hotel, is perhaps less timeless in its appeal. Its main characters are mostly middle-aged, and so is the writing; it is now over 50, and its comic cheek is showing some laugh lines. But the vestiges of laughs are nice wrinkles, as wrinkles go, and while this production doesn't leave you rolling in the aisles, it is likely to at least leave you smiling."
The Wrap - Somewhat Recommended
"...Broderick is back at it, trying to revive a far weaker Simon effort, "Plaza Suite" from 1968. This marks his sixth Broadway appearance since that sodden "Odd Couple." What makes this Simon revival noteworthy is the return to Broadway of Broderick's wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, who last appeared in her pre-"Sex in the City" days in a revival of "Once Upon a Mattress" in 1996. In between, she was enchanting in David Lindsay-Abaire's underrated "Wonder of the World" at Off Broadway's MTC in 2001."
Deadline - Recommended
'...Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite couldn’t seem better suited to the long-in-coming stage-taking of real-life couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. What better way for two actors who got their early starts in the theater – she as a young star of Annie, he in Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues – than a vintage Broadway comedy with multiple roles for its leading man and woman?"
TheaterScene.net - Highly Recommended
"...Audience laughter abounds during Matthew Broderick and Sara Jessica Parker’s uproarious performances in this splendid first Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s 1968 hit comedy, Plaza Suite. This married show business couple revel in their different roles during three one-acts all taking place in the same hotel room. They’re greeted with wild entrance applause each time they come on stage and though standing ovations at the end of shows have become obligatory, here it’s sincere and justified. Mr. Broderick and Ms. Parker’s enduring star quality is on display at the Hudson Theatre."
NY Theatre Guide - Recommended
"...Amid many memorable lines, one by Karen Nash that comes about two minutes into the show has been playing on a loop in my head. "Old is no good anymore," she says. Sorry, Karen, you're wrong. This 54-year-old comedy may be no spring chicken, but it's good enough to be one of Broadway's biggest events of the season."
Stage Buddy - Highly Recommended
"...Yet Plaza Suite is still a lively comedy filled with one-liners and quips. As far as our audience was concerned, Broderick and Parker could do no wrong. So what if the marriages onstage in the play were falling apart? We still had faith in theirs."
Theater Pizzazz - Highly Recommended
"...Judging by the applause as the curtain lifts and John Lee Beatty's luxurious, shimmering set for Plaza Suite unveils, director John Benjamin Hickey's glorious throwback to the gilded Broadway of "yesteryear," intimates a night of enjoyment. Coupled with its second harbinger of success, enthusiastic cheers at the entrances of the husband-and-wife team Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, the Neil Simon revival emblazons itself a smash even before Karen (Parker) and Sam (Broderick) have their first disagreement."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...As the lush, forest-green curtain rises, the suite at the Plaza is at its peak of elegance, due to additional masters of their craft: John Lee Beatty (sets) and Brian MacDevitt (lights). Soon, Jane Greenwood's exquisitely delightful 1960s-era costumes, and Tom Watson's glorious variants of wigs aid in distinguishing the three characters each played by Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick."
StageZine - Recommended
"...It is a joy to watch Ms. Parker and Mr. Broderick playing in a fun show together. They know each other's rhythms and it is a pleasure to watch them banter, seduce, and bicker with each other. Also, I'm a thrilled to report that Ms. Parker plays three characters with each having a distinct tonal voice and personality and none of them resemble Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and the City" as she offers appropriate mannerisms for each of her characters. Kudos to both of them for the laughs they provide."
Daily Beast - Highly Recommended
"...Parker, Broderick and their three briefly-seen fellow actors excel, crisply and correctly judging repartee, tempo, pace, and tone. Parker is adept at handling hilarity—hobbling around, as Karen, on one shoe—and then, moments later, utterly piercing as she realizes the devastation of her marriage. The champagne may have long gone flat, but she stays fizzing."
The Observer - Highly Recommended
"...The first thing I should report about Plaza Suite is that Matthew Broderick is at peak Broderick. Theater people will understand this is not good news. It means that he’s delivering yet another bland, mousy smudge of a performance, squeaking his lines, looking like someone poured pudding in his loafers. His three characters were originated by George C. Scott on Broadway and later filmed by Matthau. Between those icons of comically stodgy masculinity, Broderick is a limp and wet puppy, framing everything in quotation marks and winks as if to say, I’m acting like I’m acting. His depressed, philandering businessman, his sleazy Hollywood player, his rage-prone father of the bride—none is remotely convincing or fleshed out. Well, the film producer is an ingratiating weasel, so that’s in the approximate universe."
Broadway News - Somewhat Recommended
"...People have long ponied up for the promise of elegance, familiarity and a bit of gracious pandering, on Broadway as on Central Park South. Throw in the allure of celebrity, and a revival of “Plaza Suite” starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker was always going to be a foolproof attraction for those with good old-fashioned money."
Theatrely - Not Recommended
"...It’s widely accepted that George Furth’s book of Company, playing just a block over from Plaza Suite, is worlds inferior than the music and lyrics Stephen Sondheim created for it. It’s serviceable, and sometimes quite funny, but mostly just a placeholder for some of the most clever, lovely tunes you’ve ever heard. Both works put “modern” marriage under the microscope at a time when modernity was already on its way to post, the difference being that Sondheim had something to say, kinks to work out. Simon offers no such remedy. His lens is neither loving, neutral, nor critical. We’re not meant to celebrate love in all its complexities, or put it through the wringer. Nor does it offer a neo-realist slice of life. It’s mediocrity, baldly served on a silver platter for golf claps. Watching a perennial favorite like Sarah Jessica Parker’s talent go to waste for close to three hours, I couldn’t help but wonder, surely we can keep her in better company?"
New York Stage Review - Recommended
"...No one was exactly clamoring for a revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite. This triptych of one-act comedies probably seemed old-fashioned upon its original 1968 Broadway production, and certainly comes across that way in the stilted 1971 film version starring Walter Matthau. But major-league performers demand star vehicles, creaky as they may be, in the often-mistaken belief that they can bring them back to life through sheer star power."
Cultural Daily - Recommended
"...In this current revival (at the Hudson), basically an excuse for Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker to have some onstage fun together, the latter two gems hold up magnificently, but the first semi-serious scene falls flat. Though their ages are correct for the roles of a disconnected, disillusioned pair, Broderick and Parker look and act like Ferris Bueller and Carrie Bradshaw, their famous alter egos, playing late-middle aged dress-up. They seem uncomfortable in Jane Greenwood's dowdy costumes and in their own skin. The crisis in their marriage-Sam is having a midlife fling with his secretary-comes across as not very important and the comic-relief gags about suburban concerns aren't very funny. It also doesn't help that the script calls for Broderick to be svelte and Parker to be pudgy when they are physically the opposite. Fortunately, John Lee Beatty's set is luxuriously appropriate throughout."
Total Theater - Recommended
"...Plaza Suite has lasted as long as it has because people identify with the marital shenanigans they see on stage, here played with all the charm possible by Parker and Broderick. But honestly, if you think the characters in this play behave in a normal fashion or speak to each other as they do here, the advice from this long-married reviewer is to get couple's counseling."
