ABOUT THE SHOW...
California Suite is a delightful Neil Simon confection divided into four playlets:
In "Visitor from New York," Hannah, a magazine writer, is joined by her ex-husband, the question being with whom should their daughter spend the next six months? The banter flies fast and furious.
"The Visitor from Philadelphia" is a wife who arrives at the suite, catching her husband in a rather delicate and embarrassing predicament.
"Visitors from London" finds Academy Award nominee Diana returning from the ceremony empty-handed to her husband, Sidney, who offers her no real comfort.
"The Visitors from Chicago" are two couples at the end of disastrous vacation they should not have shared.
This is Neil Simon at his most humane, compassionate best. California Suite was first presented on Broadway by Emanuel Azenberg and Robert Fryer at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on June 10, 1976. It was directed by Gene Saks.
For those of us who imagine Los Angeles as nothing but a long street in a desperate search of a parking lot, Neil Simon's California Suite [...] will come as a vast relief [...] Mr. Simon is writing at his ebullient best [...] his language has the grace of conversation we wish our friends could muster [...] makes us laugh so effortlessly.
– The New York Times