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Plaza Suite is a comedy play by Neil Simon.
The second act, Visitor from Hollywood, involves a meeting between movie producer Jesse Kiplinger and his childhood sweetheart, suburban housewife Muriel Tate. Serial divorcé Jesse attempts to seduce Muriel, who represents to him a longed-for innocence and purity. Meanwhile, celebrity-obsessed Muriel wants to hear every sordid detail of Hollywood life. She attempts to maintain her virtuous self-image which becomes increasingly at odds with her behaviour, and the act ends with the pair beginning to make love as Muriel makes Jesse recite the names of the celebrities he sat nearby at the most recent Academy Awards dinner.
The third act, Visitor from Forest Hills, revolves around married couple Roy and Norma Hubley on their daughter Mimsey's wedding day. In a rush of nervousness, Mimsey has locked herself in the suite's bathroom and refuses to leave. Her parents make frantic attempts to cajole her into attending her wedding while the gathered guests await the trio's arrival downstairs. It appears that the marriage will go ahead, as the act ends.
The play was profiled in the William Goldman book . Noël Coward, who three years earlier had written and starred in Suite in Three Keys—three plays with different characters, all set in the same hotel suite—later said of Plaza Suite, "Such a good idea having different plays all played in a hotel suite! I wonder where Neil Simon got it from?"
Mike Nichols won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. Neil Simon was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play but lost to Tom Stoppard for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Maureen Stapleton was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play but lost to Zoe Caldwell in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
A West Coast production, with engagements in San Francisco and Los Angeles, opened on September 16, 1968. It starred Dan Dailey and Lee Grant. The production closed March 1, 1969.
The play's first national tour, starring Forrest Tucker and Betty Garrett and Dana Ivey in the supporting female roles, opened on October 7, 1968. Replacement actors included Howard Keel and Larry Parks. Among the tour's stops was Chicago for a nearly eight-month engagement. It concluded on February 14, 1970, in Philadelphia.
Garrett and Parks, married in real life, starred in a bus and truck tour that lasted from October 16, 1970, through April 25, 1971.
A Broadway revival was initially set to play at the Hudson Theatre, beginning with previews on March 13, 2020, and officially on April 13, following a pre-Broadway run at the Colonial Theatre in Boston in February 2020. However, due to the closure of Broadway houses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Broadway run was postponed. In June 2021, it was reported that the production would begin preview performances on February 25, 2022, and officially open on March 28. The production starred Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker and is directed by John Benjamin Hickey. In April 2022, the production temporarily paused performances after both Broderick and Parker tested positive for COVID-19. The revival was initially set to close on June 28, 2022, but its run was later extended to July 10 of that year to compensate for cancelled performances.
In June 2023 it was announced that the Broadway production of Plaza Suite would transfer to London's West End, with Broderick and Parker reprising their respective roles, and Hickey returning to direct. The production opened at the Savoy Theatre in previews from January 17, 2024, with an official opening night on January 28. Announced as a strictly-limited run of ten weeks, playing until March 30, due to demand the production extended its run by two weeks, and it played until April 13.
On December 31, 1982, American cable TV channel HBO broadcast a production (shot in front of a live audience) starring Lee Grant and Jerry Orbach playing all three roles.
West German TV channel SWR filmed and broadcast the play in 1986. This version was later made available on DVD.
In December 1987, Carol Burnett starred in an American ABC television movie in which she portrayed all three female roles. Starring opposite her were Hal Holbrook as Sam Nash, Dabney Coleman as Jesse Kiplinger, and Richard Crenna as Roy Hubley. Burnett was also the executive producer with direction by Roger Beatty and Kenny Solms.
America's L.A. Theatre Works produced the first radio adaption of the play in 1995, for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and KCRW.
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