Daily Information Review

By UK standards, the U.S. has a brash, in-your-face culture, and New Yorkers’ lifestyle is even more extreme. Fittingly then, we are greeted by a huge photograph of the sumptuous Plaza Hotel and very bright house lights. Then we hear Frank Sinatra singing “New York, New York” (far too quietly for me), and Neil Simon’s beautifully constructed script allows us to eavesdrop on three scenes in the life of the Plaza Hotel's Suite 719.

There’s a couple who married and honeymooned in 719 exactly twenty-three years ago today (or should that be tomorrow?), and she wants to revive the romance in their marriage, but he’s having an affair with his secretary, who actually turns up for a ‘meeting’ with him! Then we meet a Hollywood mogul, desperately trying to seduce an old school friend who he hasn’t seen for years, and who is still just as innocent as when she was fifteen, but all she cares about is the glossy magazine gossip that surrounds his lifestyle. Finally, Mimsey is getting married today, but has cold feet and has locked herself in the ensuite bathroom while her mother and father argue about who has been the better parent, not realising that their arguments are the precise reason she is having second thoughts. All three episodes are both sad and funny in turn as we recognise universal human frailties and stupidity. All are well-made vignettes, slickly performed.

Assured directing by Janet Bolam moves the characters around a suitably plush set with ease, and the actors, after the inevitable initial nervousness, find pace and colour in their scenes, although I didn’t understand why they regularly looked in the audience’s direction when talking to each other. The lighting is harsh and colourless, and Frank Sinatra’s songs that begin and end each story could be much louder, but the three pairs of actors who carry the evening are excellent. They’ve worked hard, totally own the text, have believable relationships and are universally recognisable characters. They find the tragedy, pathos and humour in the script perfectly, and I chuckled at their predicaments - not because they were silly, but because they were all too easy to empathise with.

This was a lovely evening with too many empty seats for such a charming theatrical achievement.