Review: Roundup: What Did the Critics Think of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick in PLAZA SUITE?

Neil Simon’s three-act play about couples in crisis, Plaza Suite, has now opened at London's Savoy Theatre, already extended until 13 April. 

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick reprise their roles from the Broadway production. Excitement (and tickets prices) are high, so, what did the critics think?

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

Debbie Gilpin, BroadwayWorld: There’s no getting away from the fact that most people coming to see this show are doing so out of curiosity over Broderick and Parker’s onstage chemistry - fortunately they have it by the bucketload, which makes up for some of the shortfall in the material. Broderick is best suited to the more naturally comedic acts two and three, particularly with his Austin Powers-esque Hollywood producer Jesse Kiplinger; he lacks the emotional depth required for Sam Nash, delivering most of his lines in quite a sitcom-like manner.

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage: Starring the Rolls Royce real-life-husband-and-wife vehicle of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, these three snapshots of battles between the sexes are so rooted in historical attitudes and Simon’s dyspeptic view of the state of his own era that it is impossible to enjoy them as anything but period pieces. And slightly difficult to relish them even as that – though Parker’s enthusiasm for the project is infectious enough just about to carry you through.

Sam Marlowe, The Stage: In John Benjamin Hickey’s production, transferred from Broadway, the pair are certainly competent, with all the accomplished comic timing and cunningly deployed, tongue-in-cheek charm that their screen work promises. But there’s a grating, over-deliberate quality here, every gag, tic, cocked eyebrow and wry intonation arriving bang on cue without the faintest scintilla of spontaneity. It’s nowhere near enough to lend substance to Simon’s overstretched writing.

Matt Wolf, The Arts Desk: I confess to not being prepared for the range Parker displays here, and her gift for walking a tightrope between wise-cracking wit and wistfulness that at times really did put me in mind of Chekhov, the master whom Simon admired and upon whom he deliberately modelled his own 1973 play, The Good Doctor. She's in tremendous form in the piece that makes up the first half – "The Visitor from Mamaroneck" – in which she plays Karen, an excitable wife approaching 50 who has arrived early at the suite so as to prepare for a giddy anniversary celebration with her husband, Sam (Broderick).

Clive Davis, The Times: Are the VIPs any good? The audience at the performance I saw had already made up its mind on that score, breaking into prolonged applause, Broadway-style, when they made their entrances in the first instalment, which explores what happens when a dowdy, middle-aged wife discovers that her workaholic husband is having a dalliance with his secretary.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: Never mind the comedy on stage, this is a celebrity circus. Even costume changes get audience oohs and aahs. It seems oddly disproportionate because, as exciting as it may be to see Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw on stage, the production is flat and forgettable, not testing either actor’s seasoned skills on the boards (though this is Parker’s debut in the West End).

Average Rating: 60.0%

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