Published: Tuesday, Sep. 16, 2008 / Updated: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 10:42 AM
Fort Mill Community Playhouse gets ready to serve up three courses of Neil Simon
If you don't know anything about Neil Simon's "Suite" shows, here's the deal. Each of them takes place in a hotel suite, "Plaza Suite" in New York, "California Suite" in Beverly Hills, and "London Suite" across the pond somewhere. Each show is sliced and diced into separate plays - the room is the only connecting factor, not the characters.
Fort Mill Community Playhouse will perform the first in the franchise, "Plaza Suite," on Sept. 25-27 and Oct. 3-4 in their "dinner theatre" format. If you don't know anything about FMCP's dinner productions, where have you been?
Ted Delorme is directing one of these for the second time, having piloted "Too Soon for Daisies" in 2005. FMCP subscribers last saw him onstage earlier this year in "Once Upon a Mattress" as the Jester, a role that won Delorme a Best Cameo nomination for the 2008 Metrolina Theatre Association Awards.
"I'm a Neil Simon fan from the old days," Delorme freely confesses.
The old days go way back, far closer to the beginnings of television than the present day. Simon cut his teeth on weekly television, penning episodes of Sid Caesar's "Show of Shows" in a legendary writing stable that included Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart. He logged his first Broadway writing credits as early as 1955, but he didn't become a bankable name until the early 1960s, when "Come Blow Your Horn," "Little Me," "Barefoot in the Park," "The Odd Couple," and "Sweet Charity" established his unprecedented dominance.
All of these had shut down when Simon tried something different. Three completely individual one-acts, all occurring on the same exact set.
"It was written in the late '60s and opened in '68," says Delorme, "with George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton. They played all three couples. Then when they made the movie, [Walter] Matthau played all the male roles, but they had different women for all the female leads. I figured it would be easier to get a different bunch in for each act. It was an extra challenge, having to cast six leads."
Playhouse doors open at 6:30 p.m., offering a cash bar to those with reservations. Dinner is served at 7 p.m., and the show begins at 8 p.m. Then after the first act, "Visitor from Mamaroneck," comes dessert. Acts 2 and 3, "Visitor from Hollywood" and "Visitor from Forest Hills," come afterward, separated by a shorter intermission. The combined length of the last two comedies, Delorme assures us, won't be much longer than Act 1. Like dessert, Delorme observes, they will also be much lighter.
Non-members pay $35 for the dinner-plus-comedy package, but it's just $25 for members. Seats may already be gone for the first weekend and should be reserved one week prior to the performance. Call 548-8102 to get in on the fun, or e-mail fmcptix@yahoo.com.