The third act is called "The Visitors From Forest Hills" and is a classic Simon sitcom. This time the room at the Plaza has been booked by a wedding party, but Norma, the suburban mother of the bride, is distressed to discover her daughter Mimsey has locked herself in the bathroom, and refuses to come out for the nuptials. Her father, Roy, comes bursting in with all the comic fervor of a man who knows just how much each item of this wedding is costing, and joins his wife in berating, pleading, cajoling and threatening Mimsey with the dire consequences of her cold feet. Comic recriminations fly about like a demonic dart game, frequently scoring a bull's eye of hilarity. The fun of the farce is the physical comedy Roy is obliged to perform while trying to climb along the outside ledge to the bathroom, while under attack by pigeons and a sudden rainstorm.
Of course, in the end, the tempest is abated by having the groom, Borden, come to reason with Mimsey, but all he does is tell her to "cool it!" This seems to reach the daughter with a logic utterly beyond her parents' comprehension, and so she emerges to marry Borden and live happily--well, at least through the ceremony.
This play offers the contrast between the generations that was such easy fodder for comedy in the late '60s, without any genuine insights about human behavior. It does effectively satirize the foolish extremes our social customs require us to endure in order to seek simple human needs, like love. It is the sort of inspired mechanical comedy of which Simon is an indisputable master.
Filmgoers will remember the hilariously manic performances of Maureen Stapleton and Walter Matthau as the parents of the bride, and we can be grateful that Hollywood captured the essence of Simon with such definitive sharpness. The third play scores with a timeless spoof of the individual screwed by his own social conventions, making it still sparkle nearly 30 years later--although it has been a long time since any mother named her child Mimsey.
The production features the kind of performances that affect with their sincerity at Theater Works. The tour-de-force challenge of playing three different couples falls to Dina Kay and Tony McGraw, who skim the comic surfaces admirably in parts that don't allow much depth. Director Wes Martin has staged the proceedings with inventive elan, played at a welcomely brisk pace. Gregory Jaye's set is ample and handsome, though it bears little resemblance to a room in New York's Plaza Hotel, and it is always disconcerting to see walls shake when doors are slammed.
If Simon's your pie man, hunker down and take advantage of this feast of laughs. Next year, Arizona Jewish Theatre Company promises two more by Simon: They're Playing Our Song and Laughter on the 23rd Floor. After so much gooey sweetness, I'll need a shot of insulin.
Arizona Jewish Theatre Company's production of Brighton Beach Memoirs continues through Sunday, June 16, in Stage West at Herberger Theater Center, 222 East Monroe.
Plaza Suite continues through Sunday, June 16, at Theater Works, 9850 West Peoria Avenue in Peoria.
