(upbeat music)
- Spring is in the air
and the new Broadway season is in full bloom
so get ready for it.
I'm Tamsen Fadal.
It's one of Broadway's biggest opening nights yet
since before the pandemic.
The revival of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite
starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.
And it was star-studded opening night on the red carpet.
(upbeat music)
Let's send it out to Paul Wontorek.
- That's right Tamsen.
Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker
have waited two long years
to bring Neil Simon's Plaza Suite to Broadway.
We're here at opening night
at the Hudson Theater to check in with the stars.
(audience applauding)
I love seeing you two on stage having fun together.
What about this play felt right?
- Everything, I mean, we did it as a reading
for John Benjamin Hickey, that's how this all started.
None of us were surprised that Neil Simon is a great writer.
What convinced us was just that one night and thinking,
gosh, this might be something to
pursue in a different way, in a more, in a larger way
and so we did
- Over those years of the pandemic,
every once in a while, you just call over to the
Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick residence
and be like, let's run some lines.
- Yeah, they started avoiding my calls.
We always stayed plugged in.
They were, they always picked up the play.
I think at a certain point we all very smartly said,
let's stop pretending like we need to remember
every single word of this until we know
we're gonna make ourselves crazy,
but they always stayed plugged into the play.
They loved reading it,
I think they loved reading it together
and so as soon as she finished
her very busy schedule this year
she called and said, I don't want to take the weekend off,
let's start Saturday.
I want to get back on the theatrical horse
and I've never seen two people work as hard as they have
to bring this to life
and the great good fortune
is it seems completely effortless for them now.
They just seem to be having the time of their lives.
- This is a very classic New York kind of play.
What does it feel like to dig into it today?
It just feels like such a love letter to New York City
and it does feel like into another era.
Neil Simon's writing is timeless
and we are loving getting to say his words every night.
- The word I just think is masterclass.
I'm surrounded by masters, the writing's mastery
and I feel like every day I'm just growing
and improving and learning and becoming a deeper artist
because I'm surrounded by such brilliance
and it's a blessing.
- I mean, it's magic.
Yeah, I think it's especially fun
having friends come and see the show
and I mean see Plaza Suite this play for the first time
and it's just amazing to kind of come out and be like,
this is the most incredibly crafted play,
the most amazingly written play.
It's I think an amazing celebration
of Neil Simon's work just all in one.
- For many years, it felt like every season
there was a Neil Simon play on Broadway
- Yeah. - and it's been a while.
- Yeah. - What's it like
to dig into this play,
which was written in the sixties
and you know his plays are kind of the template
for so much TV comedy writing - So much, absolutely.
So much of what we know now,
if it's Larry Sanders or Jerry Seinfeld,
it's all kind of all roads lead back to that genius writing.
If you walk into the beautiful Hudson Theater
on the wall are like 45 posters of all of Neil's plays.
I mean, he was the most prolific,
the most influential playwright
possibly of the 20th century.
- I love Neil Simon.
I love this play.
It's your anniversary of your Biloxi Blues opening actually.
- I did not know not. - Absolutely.
So I know Neil Simon is special to you.
How does it feel to bring Doc Simon back to Broadway?
- Grateful doesn't, you know
sum up how I feel about him,
but even beyond that when I was a kid, just his writing,
I just always loved him and his plays are very satisfying.
They always have some, they have a underlying serious story
and then great laughs and
I don't know how he did it.
I hope we're doing him proud.
We're certainly trying.
(gentle music)