(Cover Photo: Kevin McGee as “Sam Nash” and Deb Hollett as “Karen Nash” in a scene from Neil Simon's "PLAZA SUITE" from Gateway Players in Southbridge, MA. now playing through March 2, 2025. Photo Credit David Corkum)

Kevin T. Baldwin 

METRMag Reviewer 

# 774-242-6724

"Why do you think they call it a 'dropper?' If they wanted you to stab people they would call it a 'stabber.'"

                               - ("Sam") / Neil Simon

Gateway Players

Presents Neil Simon's

"PLAZA SUITE"

Written by Neil Simon

Directed by Mike Dupuis 

Produced by Jeanne Dupuis

Stage Manager Gail Dupuis

Cast Includes: John Golden as “Jesse Kiplinger,” William Bolster as “Waiter,” Kevin McGee as “Roy Hubley/Sam Nash,” Hillary Robertson as “Jean McCormick/Muriel Tate,” Deb Hollett as “Karen Nash,” Asher McCoy as “Borden Eisler,” Cynthia Claudio as “Norma Hubley,” Chamira Santiago Flores as “Bell Hop/Mimsie Hubley.”

Additional Creative Team:

Stage Crew - Asher McCoy; Tickets - Barbara Day, Lou-Ellen Corkum, William Guy; Lighting Technician, Photography and Sound - David Corkum, Gail Dupuis, Bill Guy; Set Construction and Painting - John Martin, Michael Dupuis, Jimmy Kiritsis, Jeanne Dupuis, Angel Avilez; Costumes - CAST and Jeanne Dupuis; Props and Set Furnishings - CAST, CREW and Friends; House Coordinator - Chris McTighe and Friends.

Performances:

February 21, 2025 through March 2, 2025

(Contact Venue for Exact Dates and Times)

Performances to be held at Fellowship Hall of Elm Street Congregational Church, 61 Elm Street in Southbridge, MA. Entrance is on Park Street (around corner).

TICKETS:

Online credit card ticket sales are available at www.gatewayplayers.org For more information call 508-764-4531 or visit www.gatewayplayers.org 

COVID 19 PROTOCOLS

Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.

Gateway Players kicks off their 50^th Anniversary Season with the first show ever produced by the company - Neil Simon’s "PLAZA SUITE." 

Simon’s comedy is comprised of three acts, presented here by Gateway as two, with each vignette involving different characters, yet with all three vignettes set in “Suite 719” of New York City’s PLAZA Hotel. 

Under the direction of Michael Dupuis, the intricately timed "PLAZA SUITE" flows quite well from vignette to vignette with very little down time in between for any set redress required. 

The set for the Gateway Players show is split into two halves, one for the entry into the suite and one for the bedroom area for the suite. 

However, the doorframe constructed to separate the areas might as well have been abandoned as the characters freely roam and cross in front of the frame, eliminating any perceived notion of a room separation. 

When Simon wrote "PLAZA SUITE" it was originally comprised of four acts, one of which was cut during pre-production. 

Simon later took the removed act and expanded the concept into what ultimately became the 1970 Jack Lemmon movie “The Out-of-Towners.” 

The stage version of "PLAZA SUITE" made its debut in 1968 in New Haven then Boston before moving to Broadway where it ran until 1970 after 1,097 performances. 

Simon would ultimately get nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play (which went that year to Tom Stoppard for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”). 

Mike Nichols, however, would go on to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. 

"PLAZA SUITE" was made into a 1971 film starring Walter Matthau, Jean Stapleton, Barbara Harris and Lee Grant. 

The film has since been re-made a couple of times, once with Carol Burnett in 1987. 

As theatregoers may recall, a Broadway revival of "PLAZA SUITE" was slated to begin in 2020 but was de-railed because of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. 

The Broadway production would resume in 2022, with real-life couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker starring together in the show. 

The Broderick/Parker-led production then transitioned to London's West End in 2024 for a limited run. 

There have been updates made to the original script, allowing for more modern references as now witnessed in the production by Gateway Players. 

That said, some of the updates work while a number of them do not with anachronisms to be found everywhere. 

Supposedly set in 2024, the posh four-star hotel room comes equipped with two antique corded telephones? 

Also, even at the fanciest hotels you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who just “signs” for anything anymore – yet it is done throughout the three vignettes. 

In addition, coffee pots have been replaced by “K-Cup” technology in even the most elegant of hotels, yet a coffee pot is seen numerous times here. 

Okay, even while giving a total pass to the above: not one character owns a cellphone? 

This would be unlikely and most problematic during the very first vignette. 

(Photo: Kevin McGee as “Sam Nash” and Deb Hollett as “Karen Nash” in "Visitors from Mamaroneck" from Neil Simon's "PLAZA SUITE" from Gateway Players in Southbridge, MA. now playing through March 2, 2025. Photo Credit David Corkum)

The play begins with “Visitor From Mamaroneck,” where we meet long-married Karen Nash (Deborah Hollett) and her workaholic husband Sam (Kevin McGee). 

Hollett gives a commendable performance as Karen who seeks only to become closer again to her now-distant “Type A” husband Sam, as portrayed by McGee. 

Karen has booked what she believes to be the suite where they spent their honeymoon, 23 or 24 years ago (never quite made clear), attempting to re-infuse some passion into their banal marriage. 

Like many a Neil Simon premise, the attempt does not go well. 

Karen’s plan backfires with the couple erupting into an argument over Karen’s accusations surrounding Sam’s “relationship” to his secretary, Miss McCormick (Hillary Robinson). 

What Simon does best within the story is to explore and show how the man and woman, a once devoted married couple, have grown apart since their youth. 

(Photo: Hillary Robertson as “Muriel Tate” with John Golden as “Jesse Kiplinger” in "Visitors from Hollywood" from Neil Simon's "PLAZA SUITE" from Gateway Players in Southbridge, MA. now playing through March 2, 2025. Photo Credit David Corkum)

The second act kicks off with the vignette, “Visitor from Hollywood,” which involves a meeting between famed Hollywood movie producer Jesse Kiplinger (John Golden) and his old girlfriend, suburban housewife and mother Muriel Tate (Hillary Robertson). 

As written and performed, this story proves to be the strongest of the three vignettes in the production (ironically also the shortest). 

That said, it is also the only one of the three that should probably now come with a “#MeToo” disclaimer at the beginning as it is filled with problematic “Weinstein-ish” content and a dated premise that may have some in the audience visibly clenching. 

It is clear Jesse’s sole agenda is “seduction” (possibly a “triggering word” given the context as presented here) as he repeatedly - and not too subtly - attempts to seduce Muriel. 

Even though Muriel is fully aware of Jesse’s reputation as a smooth-talking Hollywood ladies' man, she has come to his room, like knowingly venturing into the lion’s den. 

Did Muriel willingly enter the suite for presumably nothing more than an innocent chat between old lovers? 

Or did she come in some sort of a subconscious attempt to rekindle something she feels she abandoned – trying to retrieve some of the passion she feels she sacrificed for her now mundane existence? 

That’s the question many might be asking after watching the events of “Visitor from Hollywood” and they’ll have to draw their own conclusions. 

Again, this story is the best reason to see "PLAZA SUITE" as the performances given by Golden and especially Robertson are the strongest in the show. 

(Photo: Asher McCoy as “Borden Eisler,” Chamira Santiago Flores as “Mimsie Hubley,” Kevin McGee as “Roy Hubley” and Cynthia Claudio as “Norma Hubley” in "Visitors from Forest Hills" from Neil Simon's "PLAZA SUITE" from Gateway Players in Southbridge, MA. now playing through March 2, 2025. Photo Credit David Corkum)

The final story, “Visitors from Forest Hills,” centers on the highly stressed-out Norma Hubley (Cynthia Claudio) and husband Roy (Kevin McGee) on the wedding day of their daughter Mimsey (Chamira Santiago). 

The couple has just spent a fortune on the wedding but find that a petrified Mimsey has locked herself in the suite's bathroom and refuses to come out. 

Claudio dominates much of the story's literal comedy with McGee focused more on the physical comedy elements required.

Overall, there were numerous line stumbles in "PLAZA SUITE," particularly in the first and third vignettes, with “…Forest Hills” probably suffering the most.   

Whenever there is a sacrifice of Simon’s impeccably crafted dialogue for an actor’s interpretation or “nuance,” it almost always results in a misfire. 

This vignette comes with many lighthearted moments but, as with many Simon plays, the strength comes with rapid-fire exchanges - and that much-needed rhythm, for whatever reason, was missing as presented here. 

Other notable Gateway Players performances include: Billy Bolster as the humorous hotel “Waiter,” Santiago as both “Mimsey” and a hotel “Bellhop” and Asher McCoy appearing briefly as Mimsey’s fiancé “Borden.” 

With Santiago and McCoy in “…Forest Hills” the couple is literally on for the last minutes of the play and are not given enough material by Simon in order to make much of an impact (although Mimsey’s wedding dress is gorgeous). 

Lighting cues flowed well but there were some sound cue misfires throughout the play. 

Costumes used throughout the production were certainly appropriate for the show’s updated timeframe although Muriel’s gloves in “Visitor from Hollywood” also seemed a bit anachronistic.

There are only two more chances to see "PLAZA SUITE" which ends March 2nd. So, make sure to book your reservation in advance.

Coming up next in Gateway Players' celebratory season will be "ON GOLDEN POND" by Ernest Thompson beginning May 2nd, 2025. 

Approximately two hours with one intermission.

Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) 

@MetrmagReviews

@Theatre_Critics

ABOUT THE SHOW

GATEWAY PLAYERS THEATRE OF SOUTHBRIDGE presents Neil Simon's "PLAZA SUITE" - the first show of their 50th Anniversary Season.

Presented by permission through special arrangement with Concord Theatricals.  

This program is supported by a grant from the Southbridge Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Hilarity abounds in this portrait of three couples successively occupying a suite at "THE PLAZA."

A suburban couple take the suite while their house is being painted and it turns out to be the one in which they honeymooned 23 (or was it 24?) years before and was yesterday the anniversary, or is it today? 

This wry tale of marriage in tatters is followed by the exploits of a Hollywood 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. 

The last couple is a mother and father fighting about the best way to get their daughter out of the bathroom and down to the ballroom where guests await her or as Mother yells, "I want you to come out of that bathroom and get married!"

ABOUT GATEWAY PLAYERS THEATRE OF SOUTHBRIDGE

GATEWAY PLAYERS THEATRE, INC. is an all-volunteer community theater providing quality live theatre performances and workshops to Southbridge, Sturbridge, and Charlton, Massachusetts and surrounding areas. GATEWAY PLAYERS THEATRE, INC. started in 1975, when a group of interested community members decided that Southbridge needed a theater group to bring live productions to the area. First using local schools and borrowed rehearsal and storage space, GATEWAY then moved into its current home in 1978, when Ruth Wells (of the American Optical Company Wells family) donated her home on Main Street as a cultural center in Southbridge. GATEWAY PLAYERS THEATRE offers a full season of productions, usually performed at Elm Street Congregational Church, 61 Elm Street, Southbridge, MA. as well as workshops for youths and adults. Auditions are open to all, and new members are always welcome.

GATEWAY PLAYERS THEATRE, INC.

P.O. Box # 171

Southbridge, MA. 01550

# 508-764-4531 

www.gatewayplayers.org