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NILES -- Trumbull New Theatre saves the best for last with its production of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite."
Some of that is unavoidable. The play is three separate one-acts, only connected in that they all take place in the same suite at New York City's Plaza Hotel. A bellhop (Aaron Holden) is the only character who appears in more than one scene.
The third act, "Visitor from Forest Hills," is the funniest and the most broadly comedic of the three stories as written, but the talents of Jenny Long and Robert Spain elevate the dialogue and situations at every turn.
They play Norma and Roy Hubley, a long-married couple whose daughter, Mimsey (Kaitlyn Shaffer), has locked herself in the bathroom of Suite 719 at the Plaza on her wedding day and refuses to come out.
Roy knows the exact price of every element of this wedding -- 1968 prices, which get unintended laughs 55 years later -- and he tries everything from sweet talking to brute force to extract her from the room. In between, Roy and Norma bicker and banter and try to blame the other for their current predicament.
Long and Spain can bicker and banter with the best of them, but they also convey the affection that lurks beneath the verbal sparring. Their repartee and timing are impeccable, and Spain milks the opportunities for physical humor in the situation.
Director Emma Wason's blocking really stands out in the third act, but it's even more impressive in the second act, "Visitor from Hollywood."
Harmon Andrews plays Jesse Kiplinger, a New Jersey native who's become a successful Hollywood producer. He's back on the East Coast to sign the director for his next picture, and he's hoping to reconnect -- at least for an hour and a half -- with his high school sweetheart, Muriel Tate (Jessica Ludovici).
She is a married mother of three in suburban New Jersey, but she seems to have memorized every issue of "Variety" as she rattles off details of his show biz career and personal life.
It's a scene of predator and prey, but who is who is constantly changing, and Wason keeps the characters in motion.
Ludovici skillfully deflects Andrews' advances but it's an elaborate dance, one designed more to increase his interest than discourage his desire.
The first act, "Visitor from Mamaroneck," is the longest of the three acts and the most melancholy.
Karen Nash (Connie Cassidy) has booked suite 719 because it's where she and her husband, Sam (Ron Wolford), spent their wedding night 23 years ago, at least she thinks it was. Numbers -- be they room numbers, years or ages -- are not Karen's strong suit.
But Sam clearly is more interested in work than celebrating the proximity of his anniversary, and Karen also suspects he might be more interested in his secretary (McKenna Lago) as well.
Cassidy's Karen is endearingly flighty early on and taps into the hurt her character feels as the scene progresses, but the scene lacks the comedic punch that audiences expect from '60s-era Simon and doesn't really deliver the insight that characterized his later work.
Credit goes to set designer Ron Aulet for capturing the upscale, '60s-era opulence of the hotel suite. The production was underwritten by the family and friends of Dr. James LaPolla, a frequent director and strong supporter of the theater who died in 2021, and I suspect that underwriting provided some additional financial resources.
It's money well spent, and it's a production that would have made LaPolla proud.