Where have Plaza Suite's comments been? Here is what happened

Most Boston plays and musicals, whether produced locally or on tour, have only a few excerpts. On Broadway, however, the preview periods can be much longer. Hamilton had 26 sightings; Small serrated pill, 36; Hadestown 27. When Plaza Suite begins its Broadway performances this week, it will have had a full month of previews before critics can reach their verdict.

In Boston, the Plaza Suite was only booked for two weeks and two days, and it was sold for the whole race. The press evening was scheduled by the producers of shows for the night before the end of this series, after a total of 19 performances here. As the events unfolded and the drama off stage overshadowed the genre on stage at Plaza Suite, the brevity of the race and the delay in the press night complicated the scenario for local critics.

Plaza Suite is the latest attempt by the Ambassador Theater Group, which operates the Colonial and is one of the show producers, to return the historic site to its former house status for testing before Broadway. Directed by John Benjamin Hickey, the revival of the 1968 Simons piece was designed as a vehicle for Broderick and Parker (husband and wife in real life) and built to showcase their special talents. Plaza Suite consists of a trio of playlets, all located in the same New York hotel room, in which each of the two stars plays three different roles. There are a few other actors in very minor roles, but the pair of lead performers carry by far the bulk of the weight of the productions.

This created a crisis for the show when Broderick fell ill on Thursday, February 20, so much so that the performance was canceled shortly before the curtain, to the frustration of spectators who had been impatiently waiting to see it for months . Then came Friday, February 21, the performance of the press evening, and it was the critics who had a dilemma in their hands.

In the middle of the afternoon on Friday, ATG spokesman Robert Jones contacted critics to say that Parker was sick and could not play that night. A voiceover, Erin Dilly, who hadn't played in the show before, would go for Parker and play the three roles of the stars opposite Broderick. Through Jones, the show producers asked that this performance not be reviewed.

The journalists' natural instinct is to reject any attempt to restrict coverage. But after discussing it, my publisher and I concluded that, under the circumstances, the producers were making a legitimate request. The production had been built almost entirely around Broderick and Parker, and was now devoid of half of this equation, replaced by an actress playing the role for the first time.

I did, however, tell Jones that I wanted to attend one of the performances on Saturday, February 22 if Parker returned to the cast and write a review. She returned, but the performances were sold out, and the producers said they were unable to accommodate the critics.

Other Boston critics also chose not to review the February 21 performance, including Joyce Kulhawik, the long-time former WBZ-TV art critic and current president of the Boston Theater Critics Association (of which I am a member). In no universe would it have been fair to judge this material outside of the cast that was originally planned, said Kulhawik. The reconstructed version of Plaza Suite, with a sub-study underway at Parkers place, was just not the show that was prepared for critical and general consumption by the public, she said.

When I first learned that the Plaza Suite press night had been scheduled so late in the race, I protested to Jones, ATG spokesperson. This planning meant that my review could not be posted until the day of the final performances, and printed until the production had left town. Yes, Boston critics would drag the Plaza Suite to New York, as it did a long time ago, when that city was a big test city. (At the time, as far as I know, critics were invited about a week after the shows first opened in Boston.) But our critics would be of no use to local readers trying to decide to buy a ticket here.

The producers were adamant. Jones said they referred to the first two weeks of performances as previews.

So why not just buy a ticket, see the show before the press party and write a review? I've been thinking about this.

When a program preview period is so long that its purpose is clearly to raise money while preventing critics' verdicts from slowing the box office, as happened on Broadway a few years ago with Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark, respecting the protocol of one the planned press evening does not make sense.

The case of the Plaza Suite, however, was not clear. It was beyond irritation that we, the local critics, did not weigh before the end of the race, but my publisher and I finally decided that a preview period of two weeks shorter than most Broadway shows weren't out of bounds. The biggest problem was that the overall race in Boston was so short.

Kulhawik said she understands that productions need a preview period before they are ready for review, but stressed: Our critics must land before these shows leave the city. Therefore, in her capacity as President of the BTCA, Kulhawik requested that critics be invited at least a week before the start of a show in New York.

In response, Erica Lynn Schwartz, Executive Director of the Colonial, made a statement: We appreciate Joyce's engaging in this dialogue and remain simultaneously committed to supporting the Pre-Broadway process and the development of new work here in Boston. We look forward to continuing this conversation with the Boston Theater Critics Association and the producers of the productions we bring to the Colonial.

This statement can rightly be described as non-binding. We are not going to drop the problem, '' said Kulhawik. "It was a real lesson for all of us.

D & # 39; agreement. Yes, fuzzy circumstances have derailed a scheduled review, but planning a press night so late in the race has increased the possibility that things may go wrong. Remember, and the next time a press night at a Boston theater poses a potential conflict with our obligation to Globe readers, consider taking a different approach.

Don Aucoin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeAucoin.