Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Paul Crispin Quitoriano ©2025  Joe Fanelli and Edy Escamilla

The old saying goes-”what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”-and after witnessing Joe Marshall's dispiriting, chintzy, hopelessly retrograde gay ode to Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, you'll wish this play had been able to stay there too, locked away in the cozy hotel room that its many characters inhabit. A six-vignette trifle, which somehow manages to avoid being outright offensive because it's so cluelessly conceived, it is the type of show that even describing its machinations to someone is tough to do without their eyes rolling deep into the back of their head.

It begins with a young male couple settling into their room, when a male prostitute barges in thinking they are his clients, and eventually the rentboy uses them to evade hotel security while his actual trick ends up stuffed away under their bed, presumably dead. Rolling on the floor yet“ If not, maybe the next scene is your taste-the one mostly dramatic piece-about a professed bisexual who brings a cute young guy to his room, then decides sex might not be the best option. The two then engage in some debate about sexual ethics and responsibility in heavy-handed fashion. Oddly though, this exchange is the most engaging, mainly because actors Drew Stark and Jason Romas give unaffected, mostly honest depictions of the duo, and amazingly make some of the PSA-ready dialogue even work sometimes.

Paul Crispin Quitoriano ©2025  Scott Lilly and Jonathan Craig

The third scene has a blind man and deaf guy, who don't get along, trying to navigate the dangers of their hotel room (seriously, a Mr. Magoo cartoon has more innovation), and the fourth is an insipid look at an older married couple's one-sided conversation with their gay son, about to get married to an older gent. The role of the shrewish mother in this scenario is supposed to be played by a fifty-something actress, yet we get a young girl in a terrible white wig. What is the point of this? A seasoned theater vet could have actually made this role somewhat amusing given it's almost a monologue at times, but it's firmly in line with the many foolish decisions on the part of its makers.

The final stretch involves an older man and a younger boy, the latter trying furiously to wonder how he got to Vegas, partied with a pair of annoying twinks, and into said room in the first place. So it's basically The Hangover reimagined as a soppy life lesson, this segment contains most of the much-touted full-frontal nudity this show's ads make clear, and you get both young and older male parts if that's your concern in any way. And if it is, you may be the one and only audience that will derive any pleasure whatsoever from A Night In Vegas.