Simon’s Suite Talk Can Be Heard Again : Stage: Playwright’s lightweight work is a community theater staple. Two of his shows are now in Anaheim and Westminster.

To the bemusement, if not chagrin, of many critics and theater purists, Neil Simon has become an institution. Not just an American institution, but a global institution.

His plays, from the early gag fests to the more ambitious, consciously “thoughtful” offerings of recent days, are among the most frequently produced anywhere, from New York to Orange County and all stops in between.

He’s been translated into Russian, French, Italian, even Sanskrit. Imagine journeying through India on a quest for Buddhist revelation, only to stumble across a neighborhood revival of “The Odd Couple.”

The local landscape is known for its many Simon sightings. He’s probably the single most staged playwright in the county (at least at community theaters), outstepping Shakespeare and all those other folks. There he is, currently popping up in Anaheim with the Ana-Modjeska Players’ “Plaza Suite.” Oh, that’s him again, at the Westminster Community Theatre with “California Suite.”

His popularity is legend, his ability to make a buck for Broadway historic. Simon has always been a favorite of those who don’t usually go to the theater; his middle-class sensibilities easily relate to most people’s lives, and there’s little provocation in the process. He’s clever, facile, energetic and not especially demanding, just like television, which is where his career started. At his humorist’s best, he’s very good TV, but TV nonetheless.

Simon has come a long way since the old days, when his comedies were mostly surface situations layered with jokes, but the essence remains the same--his depth can be measured in feet, not yards. Most theater operates on two levels, the exterior event and the inner dialogue; with Simon, the stuff going on underneath doesn’t often echo. The shared experience he offers emanates from the common things we already know about, not the new things that insight can bring. He’s about the familiar, and people like that.

That said, it should be added that Simon can surprise you, especially as he has matured. There have been moments of sophistication in his more recent plays (from the “Brighton Beach” trilogy to his latest, “Jake’s Women”) that wasn’t apparent before. His desire to become “profound,” as Simon has pointed out in interviews, has produced a tougher, more fat-free writer. The future may be intriguing.

To his legions of fans, though, the future is now. It’s near-blasphemy to dispute their claim that “The Goodbye Girl,” “Chapter Two” and “Barefoot in the Park” are hallmarks of American literature. Just ask Carol Brissan, a 34-year-old Anaheim resident who attended the Sunday matinee of “California Suite” in Westminster. The week before, she checked out “Plaza Suite” in Anaheim and regularly scans theater listings for Simonizings.

After listening to the usual complaints during a brief interview, Brissan nodded and then politely slapped them down. “The people who don’t like him aren’t giving themselves over to the simple pleasures” that can be found in his comedies, she said. “He writes about people who are like the people you know in your real life (and he does so in) very funny ways. All you have to have is a sense of humor to like Neil Simon.”

She took a breath and continued: “In fact, I like the earlier plays best, just because they are thoughtful (and) funny without being too heavy. You know what you’re getting with him.”

Brissan brought over a friend, Mark White, who raised the Simon banner ever higher. “I don’t understand why he’s seen negatively,” said the 39-year-old business manager from Newport Beach. “I mean, if people enjoy him, what’s the problem? I would have to admit that he’s not the deepest (writer) around, and the jokes do come pretty easily, but he’s always diverting. That’s not always something you can count on” in the theater.

Neither Brissan nor White cared to analyze any recurring themes in Simon’s library (“Thinking too much about anything ruins it,” explained Brissan) or name a favorite (“There are many, but I would have to say that ‘The Sunshine Boys’ ranks pretty high,” offered White), both agreeing that all his work satisfied their entertainment needs.

Brissan did reflect on her last two theatergoing weekends: She found “California Suite” and “Plaza Suite” especially interesting because the plays’ basic premises are so similar, even interchangeable. Both are set in hotels, “Plaza Suite” in Manhattan, “California Suite” in Beverly Hills, and aren’t full-length pieces at all, but a series of lightly connected one-acts.

As for the Westminster Community Theatre and Ana-Modjeska Players productions, the one in Westminster is likely to satisfy Simon followers more, simply because the acting is more capable and the technical values more refined. Director Sandi Newcomb’s Westminster cast has a surer grasp of Simon’s punch-line rhythms and haphazard pathos. This isn’t a show anyone has to rush to, but the performances in the first and third sketches are amusing.

In the first, a divorced couple (played by Kathryn Leyes and Rick Paap) discuss their daughter’s future, examining their divergent lifestyles--she’s a die-hard New Yorker; he’s a happily transplanted Angeleno--along the way. The third skit focuses on a brittle but comic British actress (Sigrid Zahner) who is visiting Los Angeles with her sexually ambiguous husband (Marc LeBlanc) for the Academy Awards. The second and fourth one-acts are mainly slapstick affairs, the kind of rib-poking mania that gives Simon a bad name.

Contrasted with Westminster, the Ana-Modjeska Players’ show at the Anaheim Cultural Arts Center suffers from stodgy pacing and spotty acting. The three playlets, directed by John Craig, begin with Pat Woodall and Ed Kirkland as a 50-ish couple on the eve of their 28th wedding anniversary. They bicker, they confess infidelities, they get on our nerves.

The other two sketches revolve around a couple of old sweethearts getting together after several years and a nervous bride facing her imminent wedding with more than a little reluctance.

Anyway, if you miss either of these productions, don’t fret. Simon, like death and taxes, is certain to show up around these parts again soon enough.

* The Westminster Community Theatre’s production of Neil Simon’s “California Suite” plays Friday and Saturday June at 8 p.m. at 7272 Maple St., Westminster. $7 to $9. (714) 527-8463. * The Ana-Modjeska Players’ production of Simon’s “Plaza Suite” plays Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Anaheim Cultural Arts Center, 931 N. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim. $5 and $6. (714) 991-4135.