Why Sarah Jessica Parker’s line ‘The Savoy has gone!’ in Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite will get a bigger laugh than usual in London, whose Savoy hotel is still there
- Plaza Suite, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, is coming to The Savoy Theatre in London, next door to The Savoy hotel
- In anticipation, our writer checks into a suite at the hotel, one of London’s most luxurious, to enjoy the view, the cocktails, and the opulent in-room dining
In the opening scene of Neil Simon’s 1968 play and subsequent film, Plaza Suite, “Visitor from Mamaroneck” Karen Nash exclaims, “Oh my God, The Savoy has gone!” as she looks out of the window from The Plaza hotel, in New York.
When Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw) delivers the line when it comes to London this month, it’ll probably get a bigger laugh than usual. That’s because the production, in which Parker stars with her real-life husband, Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), is being staged at the Savoy Theatre – right next door to The Savoy hotel.
Simon’s three-act play is set in one hotel suite, 719, featuring three different couples on separate visits, with Parker and Broderick playing them all. The comedy is peppered with witty lines and much talk of room service.
As The Savoy happens to be the sister hotel of The Plaza – both are managed by the Fairmont hospitality group – I (“Visitor from Hong Kong”) check into a suite with my husband.
Both hotels were built around the turn of the 20th century and were the height of luxury. John Lee Beatty’s set design for Plaza Suite is reminiscent of the Edwardian-style, one-bedroom suites with separate sitting rooms at both The Plaza and The Savoy; all high ceilings, marble fireplaces, cornicing and chandeliers.
