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PLAZA SUITE. Neil Simon takes a long-term lease on laughter, booking three sets of zany American archetypes into a trio of playlets.

Off Broadway

THE BOYS IN THE BAND. In recent sea sons, homosexuality has surfaced as a dramatic theme, and Mart Crowley's uncompromising drama deals with it coolly and honestly, lancing bitchy merriment with desolating insight. Kenneth Nelson and Leonard Frey play the host and guest of honor at a homosexual birthday party with skill and grace.

JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS. Four talented performers present the Belgian composer's songs of lyrical beauty and startling intuitions.

RECORDS RECORDS

Pop

THE GRADUATE (Columbia). Simon and Garfunkel already had half their work done when they sat down to record this score from The Graduate. As it turns out, it was the better half. Sounds of Silence with its kaleidoscopic imagery was the title tune of their big 1965 album, which also had the gentleness of April Come She Will. Two of the new songs, On the Strip and Mrs. Robinson, are bright and bouncy, but the others, Sun-porch Cha-cha-cha, The Folks and The Singleman Party Foxtrot, don't quite measure up.

THE EYES OF THE BEACON STREET UNION (MGM). Among today's sound-saturated rock groups, The Beacon Street Union is refreshingly rare: it recognizes the existence of twin stereo speakers and utilizes them to separate its music into two compatible components. In the bittersweet My Love Is, soft cymbal brushings flick back and forth between the speakers to tickle the listener's ears. Beautiful Delilah starts with vocals out of the left speaker, then switches to the right, while rhythm and piano ricochet right and left; Sportin' Life, featuring a slow, dusky guitar, is a bluesy sound that moves soulfully from left to right and back again.

ULTIMATE SPINACH (MGM). Out of Boston comes what may be the Jolly Green Giant of pop music. The Ultimate Spinach mind food includes Sacrifice of the Moon, an instrumental that includes gentle wood flute and guitar interplays; Hip Death Goddess, with cool, detached vocals plus many minutes of good heavy electric instrumental; Ego Trip and Funny Freak Parade, like all the other songs, rich in imagery and imagination.

THE WHO SELL OUT (Decca). The sellout, or the put-on, is the theme of this album—with a series of deadpan radio commercials for Charles Atlas, Heinz baked beans, Medac acne salve and Odorono deodorant. Once that's out of the way, the boys get down to music with their hard-rock top seller, I Can See for Miles; I Can't Reach You, a tightly vocalized rock piece with a brisk tambourine; and Armenia City in the Sky, a sprightly mind excursion with soft feedback and subtle imagery. Unfortunately, to get to these pleasantries, the listener has to put up with the put-on.

BEND ME, SHAPE ME (ACTA). It took The American Breed five years to achieve success and the question is: Why did it take so long? They are a pleasant, easygoing group with their feet firmly planted on solid rock and enough jazz, blues and soul overtones to make the insistent Green Light, the confidential Bend Me, Shape Me, and the soul of Something You've Got and the slow rock sounds of Mind-rocker interesting, even hummable.