PATRICK MARMION: Sarah Jessica Parker’s West End debut in Plaza Suite

You need showbiz? You need celeb? You need reassuringly costly A-lister stardust?

Here it comes within the form of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, with their hit Broadway manufacturing of Neil Simon’s Sixties comedy about marriages teetering on the brink in a New York resort room.

I puzzled if the real-life Parker-Broderick married couple – finest recognized on display for Sex And The City and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (amongst others) – may show too grand for the roar of the grease paint and the odor of a crowd. 

And make no mistake, Simon’s play is a taut, demanding work requiring the duo to play a trio of various comedian roles and preserve an viewers chuckling for 2 hours and 40 minutes straight.

But most curiously, in a play concerning the vicissitudes of affection and marriage, this showbiz energy couple inevitably put their very own union centre-stage. There’s no method they may get via this play with out probing their very own hang-ups.

Dressed for Ladies Day at Ascot: Sarah Jessica Parker in Plaza Suite

Double act: Matthew Broderick with spouse Sarah Jessica Parker

Checking in: Matthew Broderick within the hit Broadway manufacturing of Neil Simon’s Sixties comedy about marriages teetering on the brink in a New York resort room

And but the place there’s angst there’s laughs, and Simon’s wit blows contemporary air via any uncertainties we could really feel.

Mrs Broderick opens the batting as scatty, suburban New Yorker Karen, who’s booked Manhattan’s fanciest resort to revive her marriage to Mr Parker’s portly and useless businessman Sam, who she suspects of getting an affair. 

He is an amusingly tweedy, monosyllabic mood-Hoover, who very almost sucks the life out of the stage in an overlong first half.

But not like self-absorbed Carrie Bradshaw in Sex And The City, there is not any condescension about SJP. She is a loveable, chirpy, bridge-building chatterbox wanting to open champagne and slip right into a negligee.

Playing a fiftysomething couple is believable for 2 actors now each round 60, however they journey their luck within the second act as former high-school sweethearts hooking up 17 years later, thick Sixties wigs arguably making them look even older.

Shops and the town: SJP opens the batting as scatty, suburban New Yorker Karen, who’s booked Manhattan’s fanciest resort to revive her marriage to Mr Parker’s portly and useless businessman Sam, who she suspects of getting an affair

They are, nonetheless, giddy and playful sufficient to hold it off – she as a jittery mum from out of city in a brief psychedelic print gown, and he a rueful Hollywood producer in a lurid combo of test trousers, blue polo neck and orange jacket.

Their piece de resistance, although, is the ultimate scene as a society couple whose daughter has locked herself within the bathroom on her marriage ceremony day. SJP seems to be dressed for Ladies Day at Ascot, whereas MB seems trying like a frazzled Norman Lamont, simply off the bed in a morning swimsuit.

Although SJP performs comedian gymnastics of her personal, Broderick covers many of the bodily comedy, together with getting caught in a window body whereas venturing onto a seventh-floor ledge.

With just a few tickets retailing at an eye-watering £300 (first rate seats are £75-125 and good ones £200), it is pulling a notably well-heeled crowd – TV favorite Hannah Waddingham was among the many visitors on the gala efficiency final night time.

And I’m unsure who’s stooping decrease with the Moet & Chandon merchandising machines – the producers, the punters or the wine-makers. But John Benjamin Hickey’s manufacturing would not scrimp on the stage set. 

It’s a monster of stately New England chintz. Think crusty gold panelling, 200lb triple-lined curtains and a rococo bedhead worthy of a presidential suite.

They say chintz is coming again into trend, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a barely frumpy, frowning spectacle. However, frisky performances lighten the visible load and carry the spirits. Whether that justifies the admission value, light reader, solely you’ll be able to inform. 

But it is a top-of-the-range revival of a comic book vintage. All you want, women, is a Mr Big who won’t flinch on the price ticket – which is an efficient check of his character too.