Check-In Too Close to Checkout Time

Just as one never can look at Mt. Rushmore the same after having seen “North by Northwest,” one really can’t visit the Plaza Hotel in New York without thinking of Neil Simon’s play “Plaza Suite.”

It’s the first in his suite series, and the only one named for a specific hotel. (Simon generically titled “California Suite,” about the Beverly Hills Hotel.)

So place is key in “Plaza Suite,” and--even though the play is lighter than air and not wearing well with age--it needs to be done with attention to detail--which it isn’t getting in the Irvine Community Theater’s revival at Turtle Rock Community Park.

This company never builds sets for its shows but performs on the park auditorium’s shallow, wood-paneled stage. This Plaza looks like a ski lodge, a major problem for such a site-specific play.

“Plaza Suite” is three short plays. “Visitor From Mamaronek,” a slow opener in the best of hands, is deadly dull here. Karen and Sam Nash (Mary Benton and Jim Ward) are so alienated that they can’t even agree on the date or the year they got married. She wants a romantic love nest; he’s up to his eyeballs with business. And he’s having an affair with his secretary (Sushila Sheryl Singh).

Benton and Ward plod their way through Simon’s poor attempt at dramatic writing (he was years from “Broadway Bound”), but “Plaza Suite” doesn’t begin to find its pulse until after intermission, with “Visitor From Hollywood,” a charming little piece about the way Hollywood lures and changes people. As big producer Jesse and his high school sweetheart Muriel, Walter DuRant and Christy Joy play with sprightly charm.

*

Director Tom Titus seems to feel most at home with Simon at a loud comic level, which is where he has pitched the finale, “Visitor From Forest Hills.” Roy (Tony Grande) and Norma (Andrea Goldin-Frumes) find themselves in a pickle when daughter Mimsey (Singh) locks herself in a bathroom, refusing to attend her own wedding.

Before Simon lets things resolve on a serious note, we see the parents freaking out. Grande and Goldin-Frumes do so with the kind of energetic comic timing we’ve been waiting for all evening. It’s funny, but it’s been a long wait.

* “Plaza Suite,” 1 Sunnyhill Lane, Turtle Rock Community Park, Irvine. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends May 3. $6-$8. (714) 857-5496. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

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“Plaza Suite,”

Mary Benton: Karen Nash

Jim Ward: Sam Nash

Sushila Sheryl Singh: Jean McCormack/Mimsey Hubley

Walter DuRant: Jesse Kiplinger

Christy Joy: Muriel Tate

Andrea Goldin-Frumes: Norma Hubley

Tony Grande: Roy Hubley

Gil Peters: Bellhop/Borden Eisler

An Irvine Community Theater production of a play by Neil Simon, directed by Tom Titus. Sound and lights: Janice Carr.