(SOMERS POINT, NJ) -- Gateway Playhouse presents Neil Simon's London Suite with three performances from July 11-12, 2026. Witty, charming, and unmistakably Neil Simon, London Suite invites audiences into a series of hilarious and heartfelt encounters set in the same London hotel room.
The show encompasses four one-act plays, all set within the same London hotel room, and detail the hilarious happenings of each guest experience. From romantic mishaps to family chaos, Simon's signature humor shines through in this collection of stories about love, misunderstandings and second chances.
Performances take place Saturday, July 11 at 7:00pm; and Sunday, July 12 at 1:00pm & 7:00pm. Tickets are available for purchase online and at the Karen S. Sutherland Box Office 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Gateway Playhouse is located at 738 Bay Ave. in Somers Point, New Jersey.
Jacob Van Tine
Directed by Ryan Daly, who directed the Gateway's productions of The Man Who Came to Dinner and Much Ado About Nothing, with assistant director Janelle Hawkes, the show is part of the Gateway's Community Spotlight Series, three popular plays with scaled-down settings that help round out the Gateway's first-ever, all-musical MainStage Season. This is Daly's first experience working on a play by Simon, who also famously wrote The Sunshine Boys, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Odd Couple, and many more.
"I have a real appreciation for his work. He has a great ear for dialogue," said Daly. "For an actor, his dialogue is easy to learn and his characters are highly relatable, not cartoonish."
London Suite is one of three of Simon's "Suite" plays; the others being Plaza Suite and California Suite. Daly believes London Suite is the funniest of the three. The four acts detail the following:
* "Settling Accounts:" A Welsh writer charges his long-time business manager of stealing his money.
* "Going Home:" An American daughter tries to convince her widowed mother, abroad for a shopping trip, to spend an evening with a rich Scotsman.
* "The Man on the Floor:" Married New Yorkers have misplaced their tickets to Wimbledon and are about to lose their suite to actor Kevin Costner who needs it immediately.
* "Diana and Sidney:" Characters from Simon's California Suite, Diana, a famous actress, and Sidney, her bisexual ex-husband, see each other for the first time in years. He's in love with someone else; she still loves him.
Daly's cast is filled with a mix of familiar faces seen at the Gateway, such as Joe Chialastri, Andrew Czekalski and Victoria Biron, as well as new performers like Jacob Van Tine, Ginger Liberatore and Maria Black. In order to accommodate as many actors as possible who came to audition, Daly devised additional characters to create an entire hotel "staff," such as chambermaids, to help transition scene changes.
American playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon (1927-2018) is widely regarded as one of the most successful, prolific and performed playwrights in theatre history. In addition to Lost In Yonkers, which won a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize, his plays and musicals include Come Blow Your Horn, Little Me, Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Sweet Charity, The Star-Spangled Girl, Plaza Suite, Promises, Promises, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Gingerbread Lady, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Sunshine Boys, The Good Doctor, God's Favorite, California Suite, Chapter Two, They're Playing Our Song, I Ought to be in Pictures, Fools, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, The Odd Couple (female version), Broadway Bound, Rumors, Jake's Women, The Goodbye Girl, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, London Suite, Proposals, Hotel Suite, The Dinner Party, 45 Seconds from Broadway, Oscar and Felix, and Rose's Dilemma.
In addition to the film adaptations he wrote of many of his plays, his screenplay credits include After the Fox, The Out-Of-Towners, The Heartbreak Kid (original 1973 version), Murder by Death, The Cheap Detective, Seems Like Old Times, Only When I Laugh, Max Dugan Returns, The Slugger's Wife, The Marrying Man and The Odd Couple II. Other motion pictures based on stage plays include Come Blow Your Horn, Sweet Charity and The Star-Spangled Girl. For television, Mr. Simon wrote series, teleplays and motion pictures, including The Tallulah Bankhead Show, The Sid Caesar Show, The Phil Silvers Arrow Show, The Phil Silvers Show, The Garry Moore Show, The Trouble with People, ABC's Broadway Bound and Jake’s Women.
