THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
.jpg
)
By Neil Simon
Savoy Theatre, The Strand, London WC2, until April 13 2024.
The vibe here is very 'Broadway' for this direct transfer from The Great White Way. Take a much-loved star couple adept at social comedy and a play which doesn't demand too much of us and you have the perfect boulevard comedy night out. There couldn't be a better theater than the Savoy too, and John Lee Beatty's luxuriously old-fashioned set fits right in. You could have wandered in from upstairs and not noticed.
The choice of play is slightly daring because although Simon will go down in history as a Broadway legend, having a greater hit rate than anyone else and breaking records for shows running simultaneously, he is now distinctly but undeservedly out of fashion. His milieu of white, male, middle-aged, angst doesn't go down well today – perhaps we need to remember that nothing dates so much as the immediate past.
.jpg)
At least this one is from his early years. A hit in 1968, when it is set, it's clearly a period piece, and director John Benjamin Hickey's (also a great actor by the way) achievement is that he underlines this and doesn't strive for 'relevance'. Jane Greenwood's costumes are a period horror/delight in their chiffon and Day-Glo chic and perfectly locate the piece in a world where female characters stoically put up with their husbands' nonsense but generally outwit them.
It's three plays in one, all set in the same Suite 719 of the legendary New York hotel, in different eras, and Parker and Broderick play all the leads. It's interesting that the three housewives/mothers played here by Sarah Jessica Parker are no pushovers and all fare better than the men.
This first focuses on a tired, middle-aged, married couple, Sam and Karen, revisiting their honeymoon in an attempt, by Karen, to reignite the passion in their marriage. It's the most mature and poignant of the three and Parker is particularly moving as a neglected, lonely, housewife slowly realizing that she's not going to let her cheating business-man husband have his mid-life crisis at her expense.
The second involves a meeting between, Jessie, a Hollywood movie producer, and his old flame from New Jersey, Muriel, now a suburban housewife. Broderick, resembling Austin Powers here, has fun with the part. Muriel loves her gossip mags, so she knows every detail of his life, and although fully aware of his reputation as a ladies man, turns up anyway out of curiosity. He then repeatedly tries to seduce her while she obsesses about his glamorous life.
The third revolves around a married couple, Roy and Norma, on the wedding day of their daughter, Mimsey, who has locked herself in the suite's bathroom and stubbornly refuses to come out. The tone here is different, opting for gentle slapstick as they frantically try to cajole her into going downstairs to her own wedding where the guests are all waiting. Roy is apoplectic at what it's all costing him. Broderick has enough charm here to override the unappealing characteristics of his characters and crucially he doesn't play for sympathy. It's interesting too in the first play, he's the one obsessed with dieting, not his wife.
Parker delineates the three women brilliantly and there's a great physical ease in the more ropy slapstick moments. Needless to say, her comic timing is ace.
In the first piece she admonishes the selfish Sam with the great line "You don't even have an affair the hard way" and she demonstrates how Simon, despite his weakness for too often resorting to the cheap gag, still knows how to emotionally engage an audience. The common thread here is people disappointed with their success and with their marriages. This might be ho-hum for some, but it'll always be relevant, and it explains how it takes more than just social attitudes to make a good play feel dated.
Despite the crowd pleasing, the ideas here have resonance and Simon gets to the nub of what makes his characters tick – and more importantly what makes them unhappy.
