DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 381 836 CS 508 903

AUTHOR Carr, John C.

TITLE Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rd Floor." Spotlight

on Theater Notes.

INSTITUTION John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,

Washington, D.C.

SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC.

PUB DATE [95)

NOTE 13p.; Produced by the Performance Plus Program,

Kennedy Center Education Department. Funding also

provided by the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund. For

other guides in this series, see CS 508 902-906.

PUB TYPE Guides General (050)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.

DESCRIPTORS Acting; *Cultural Enrichment; *Draila; Higher

Education; Interview..; Playwriting; Popular Culture;

Secondary Education; Television

IDENTIFIERS *Laughter on the 23rd Floor; *Simon (Neil)

ABSTRACTThis booklet presents a variety of materials

concerning Neil Simon's play "Laughter on the 23rd Floor." After a

brief introduction to the play, the booklet presents a profile of the

playwright, several lists of his accomplishments, information on his

work for television, a quiz about plays, biographical information on

the producer, director, actors and designers, and a 3-item list of

additional readings. (RS)

Reproductions supplicd by EDRS are the best that can be made

from the original document.

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EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

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n 1953, two extraordinary eventshappened in my life: I got married andbecame a writer on "Your Show of

Shows," starring Sid Caesar. Both eventsmade me extremely happy. I was 26 yearsold, and on the first day I went to work onthe Caesar staff, I was awed by the gifts andtalents of the other writersMel Brooks,Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart (who went on tocreate "M*A*S*H"), Mel Tolkin, my brotherDanny, and a few others. After two years on"Your Show of Shows," Sid Caesar moved onto have his own show, "Caesar's Hour," takingmost of the writing staff with him. Sid Caesarwas big in every way--in his size, his humor,

his appetite, his anger, and hislove of his writers. During thisperiod, America was besiegedby Communist hunters led byJoseph McCarthy and RoyCohn. Writers, actors,directors, and everyoneconnected with the arts lived infear of being put on theirblacklist, which made youunemployable in television.F ®r television

viewers of acertain age,"Your Show of Shows" was aweekly addiction. An hour-long variety show starring SidCaesar and Imogene Coca, itclaimed the major share ofaudience attention nSaturday evenings from 1950to 1954. Besides Neil Simon,writers for the show whowent on to other considerablesuccesses included WoodyAllen, Mel Brooks, and Larry

Nlbart.

The play Laughter on the 23rd Floor (ouroffices were in a high-rise building in NewYork) is a picture that closely resembles thereal life that went on in the writers' room.Mostly we laughed, talked, argued, and ate,anything to put off the inevitable writing. Butwhen we worked we burned the midnight oil,and sometimes burned the drapes anddesktops as well. There is very littleexaggeration in the play. There was also verygreat pressure on all of us to deliver on theair, as NBC feared our show was too esoteric,too smart for the new rural audiences whowere getting their first TVs. This pressurewas mostly felt by Sid Caesar, who began totake tranquilizers and Scotch to calm hisnerves. But it never held hack his anger indealing with less-than- imelligent networkexecutives and threats to America by menlike Senator McCarthy.

I've always believed humor is fed byconflict. We had our share of both, and Ihope that Laughter on the 23rd Floor willgive you an intimate picture and a front rowseat as to what went on in the writers' roomin the early '50s.

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Lists are sometimes thebest way to put NeilSimon's accomplishmentsin perspective. Lists on thisand the next three pagestry to do that

Images ofcornucopias,never-emptying cups, andNiagara Falls come to mindwhen one considers NeilSimon's prolific writing.

His first widely seentheatrical work wasas co-writer with hisbrother, Danny, forsketches theycontributed to theBroadway musicalsCatch a Star (1955)and New Faces (1956).Since 1961 he hassupplied Broadway withone hit show afteranother Here is a list ofSimon's 27 plays to date.How many have youseen9

Barefoot in the ParkBiloxi BluesBrighton Beach MemoirsBroadway BoundCalifornia SuiteChapter TwoCome Blow Your HornFoolsThe Gingerbread LadyGod's Favorite Little MeThe Good DoctorThe Goodbye GirlI Ought to ?Re in PicturesJake's WomenLast of the Red Hot LoversLaughter on the 23rd FloorLittle MeLost in YonkersThe Odd CouplePlaza SwteThe Prisoner of Second

AvenuePromises, PromisesRumorsThe Star Spangled GirlThe Sunshine BoysSweet CharityThey're Playing Our Song

This spring his 28th show,London Swte, will openoff-Broadway.

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Red Suff044:"Sit 114, 4100ge at a Pawn"

"I am the most aliveand most fulfilledsitting alone in a room,hoping that those wordsforming on the paper inthe Smith-Corona willbe the first perfect playever written in a singledraft."

Thus spake Neil Simon in 1979, in theintroductory essay to an anthology of hisplays. Nothing that has happened in theintervening 16 years seems to have changedthat fascinating disclosure. Themost popular of Americanplaywrights continues tosurprise and delightaudiences with the funny-sad observations thathe and the Smith-Corona turn outsingledraft or not.

Although he has been calleda "laugh machine," a"wisecracker," and a master of"one-line zingers," Simon hasalways shown usbetween, in.and around the lineswhatLondon critic Herbert Kretzmercalls "the pain, aspiration, andpanic behind all those flipphrases."

One of the secrets of Simonssuccess lies in the fact that his

as George in Chapter Two, and as Eugene .in

Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, andBroadway Bound. Amalgams of himself andhis brother, Danny, appear elsewhere, as theydo in the character of Lucas in Laughter onthe 2.3rd Floor. Simon's parents, wives, andformer co-workers turn up in other plays.

Born in the Bronx in 1927, Simon began hiscareer writing for an Army camp newspaper.After discharge, he became a mailroom clerkfor Warner Bros.' New York office. Soon hewas writing for radio, providing material forRobert Q. Lewis and Tallulah Bankhead, andthen for television, where he put words in themouths of Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, RedButtons, Garry Moore, and, most famously,Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca.

After he and his brother provided sketchesfor two Broadway revues in the 1950s, hegave his attention to becoming a full-timeplaywright. With Come Blow Your Horn in1961, he began a succession of plays that

would eventually make him thecreator of more hitshows than anyone inAmerican theater history.

Simon has receivedmultiple award

nominations and awards,including the Tony, Emmy, Oscar,

Writer's Guild, and (London) EveningStandard. He received thePulitzer Prize in 1991. In 1975he received a Special TonyAward for his "overallcontribution to the theater."He has been profiled on thePBS series "American Masters."

Realizing that Simon writesabout himself and those heknows, and recognizing that hisplays (and their screenadaptations) reach vast audi-

ences, it is no wonder that his third wife,Diane Landers, required a pre-nuptial agree-ment that prevents him from writing abouther or her (laughter during her lifetime. So,although Simon has described himself as "thatperson sitting in the corner who's observingit all," we can forget about his sharingobservations on his current domestic life.

lit that case, where to next, Mr. Simon?42.9

Three NeilSimon playsstand among the longest -

running Broadwayproductions:

Barefoot in the Park1,530 performances

Brighton Beach Memoirs1,2P9 performances

Promises. Promises1,281 performances

humor starts, as he pins it, "with characters."And since, with few exceptions, his plays arehis autobiography, he knows thosecharacters well. Ilis experiences throughouthis life and his relationships with andobservations of his family, friends, andacquaintances all appear in various guises.

Simon himself appears many times, mostnotably as Buddy in ( 'nine Mow lour Horn.

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For a man who has created and named something in theneighborhood of 200 characters, it seems ,)propriate thatNeil Simon has been known by more than one name

himself. was born Marvin Neil Simon, was soonknown simply as Neil, and later was called Doc by

colleagues and friends.Doc is a nickname of both respect and

affection, bestowed on him for serving asuncredited "play doctor" for the ailing scripts of

numerous other playwrights.

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Not Onlydoes Neil Simon hold theplaywriting record for thegreatest number of hits in theAmerican theater, but he alsoholds the record for thegreatest number of playsadapted for film:

Come Blow Your HornBarefoot in the ParkThe Odd CoupleThe Star Spangled GirlLast of the Red Hot LoversThe Gingerbread Lady (underthe title Only When I Laugh)

Plaza SuiteThe Sunshine BoysI Ought to Be in PicturesThe Prisoner of Second AvenueChapter TwoBrighton Beach MemoirsBiloxi BluesBroadway BoundLost In Yonkers

Additionally, the musical SweetCharity, for which he wrotethe book, was also filmed.

Neil Simon's®rlirtc,1 fitscripts include:After the FoxThe Out of TownersThe Goodbye Girl

(later adapted as aBroadway musical)

The Heartbreak KidMurder by DeathThe Cheap DetectiveSeems Like Old TimesMax Dugan ReturnsThe Slugger's Wife

The Lonely Guy

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Make ell& MaisigattanNo one has depicted life in New York Cityand its environs with more clarity, exactness,and humor than Neil Simon. The settings of

the overwhelming majority ofhis plays are the East and Westsides and uptown anddowntown Manhattan withexcursions into the otherboroughs.

Yes, he wanders afar nowand then. To Biloxi, Mississippi(Bawl Mites), to Russia (77eGood Doctor), to Ukraine(Fools), to California(California Suite, I Ought toBe in Pictures, The StarSpangled Girl), and to London

when his first full-length play,Come Blow Your Horn,appeared on Broadway, NeilSimon has probably keptmore stage actors employedthan any other Americanwriter in history. Here is alist of some of the stars whohave appeared in Simon roleson Broadway. All of them arein addition to the nameswhich appear in the play quizon page 1 1.

Brooke AdamsJack AlbertsonAlan AldaDebbie AllenLucie ArnazMatthew BroderickJames CocoVictor GarberLee GrantTammy GrimesRosemary HarrisJudd HirschAnne JacksonRobert KleinJack KlugmanLinda LavinSam LeveneLorna LuftMarsha MasonMercedes Mc CambridgeRita MorenoPhyllis NewmanJerry OrbachChristopher PlummerTony RandallJoan RiversFrances SternhagenGwen Verdon

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(the upcoming London Suite). But in hisother playsremember. there have been 27

of them produced in New York so farit'sManhattan. Brighton Beach, Yonkers,Sneden's Landing (just north of Manhattan ),and the North Shore of Long Island.

Apartments are the principal places inwhich Simon's characters love, light, makeup. connive, seek attention, kvetch, and sayfunny things. Dotted on the map, his plays

are located in such places as Riverside Dtive.

Second Avenue, Upper Broadway, lowerCentral Park West, and the Upper East Side.

Laughter on the 2:3d Floor is a rareexception to Simon's "life in the apartmentsof New York" scene. It is set entirely "on the23rd floor of a building on 57th Street."

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One of Neil Simon's hallmarks is his ability togenerate one new plot after another. In only afew instances has he adapted the work ofothers. He turned to short stories by AntonChekhov for the brief plays that make up TheGood Doctor, and, in a big stretch, he turnedto the Book of Job for the comedy God'sFavorite.

Simon has adapted four works to create

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books for musicals. Federico Fellini's filmThe Nights qf Cabiria was the inspiration forSweet Charity; Patrick Dennis's novel Lillie.lte was t he jumping-off point for I he musicalof the same name (19(i2 and revised 1982):and Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond'sfilmscript for The Apartment served as thesource for Promises. Promises.

Inspiring himself', he turned to hisscreenplay for The Goodbye Gi/ for themusical of the same name.

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Azude-wet: &lammed 4Playwright Neil Simon and producerEmanuel Azenberg have a professionalmarriage made in heaven. They have beenhappily tied to one another since 1972, whenAzenberg produced The Sunshine Boys.

For better or worsethere have been afew disappointments, such as Fools andGod's Favorite Simon and Azenberg havekept themselves and Broadway audienceshappy with hit after hit. Their latestcollaboration is the production of Simon'snewest script, London Suite, which will openin New York later this season.

While the theater community and Simonfans are used t to a new play almost everyyear, they were not prepared for Azenberg'sannouncement that London Suite will be thefirst of Simon's plays produced off-Broadway.Pointing to the ever-growing costs ofBroadway productions and the ever-lesseningopportunity to earn a return on productioninvestments, Azenberg grabbed headlineswith his precedent-setting decision to presentthe show in a small theater, away from thetheater district.

In addition to mounting 18 of Simon'splays, Azenberg is the respected producer ofsuch .shows as Hal Holbrook's Mark TIMMTonight!, Ain't Misbehavin', Whose Life Is ItAnyway?, Children of' a Lesser God, MasterHarold...and the Boys, and The Real Thing.He also produced Stephen SondheinfsSunday in the Park With George and JeromeRobbins' Broadway.

Azenberg's productions have earned 95Tony Award nominations and 33 awards.

The professional marriage of Simon andAzenberg makes good sense. Azenberg pointsout that while Simon knows how to writeplays like few others, "the business side oftheater is a total mystery to him."

pplet e5a.&.Kennedy Center audiences rememberdirector Jerry Zaks' contributions to Guysand Dolls, Lend Me a Tenor, and WenceslasSquare. His productions of Six Degrees ofSeparation and Anything Goes were seen atthe National Theatre.

Zaks, one of the most popular directors inthe theater, has just opened his most recentBroadway showthe musical Smokey oe'sCafe. Broadly recognized for his work, Zakshas received four Tonys, four Drama DeskAwards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, anObie, a Dramalogue Award, and an NAACPImage Award nomination. Resident Directorof Lincoln ('enter Theatre from 1986-1990,Zaks is a founding member of New York'sEnsemble Studio Theatre.

Zaks appeared on Broadway in the originalproductions of Grease and Tint.upes.

40144: dicta/a/a allm4estaaHoward Hesseman, who plays Max Princeread Sid Caesar in Laughter on the 2ardFloor, was heralded for his performance ontelevision's "WKRP in Cincinnati," for whichhe received two Emmy Award nominations.

He also starred in two other televisionseries, "One Day at a Time" and"Head of the ('lass."Additional televisionand film appearanceshave gained himincreasing numbers offans as well as criticalplaudits.

On stage, Hessemanhas appeared in AlanAyckbournS Man ofthe Moment and ArthurMiller's Broken Glass.

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Lewis J. Stadlen makes a welcome return tothe Kennedy Center, where he has starred inRoom Service, The Time of Your Life, andGuys and Dolls. In Laughter on the 23rdFloor he plays Milt, the role he created in theBroadway production.

Other Neil Simon plays in which he hasappeared are The Sunshine Boys and TheOdd Couple. He is well-remembered as Dr.

Pangloss in the 1974 revival of LeonardBernstein's Candide.

Stadlen received the Helen Hayes Awardfor his performance in Bertolt Brecht's TheCaucasian Chalk Circle at Arena Stage.

Titizee Ta 24e4ireeiaThe designers for Laughter on the

23rd Floor are threeof the top-flight behind-the-scenesartists in showbusiness.

TONYWALTON'sscene designsfor Guys andDolls, The WillRogers Follies,Grand Hotel.Pippin,

Sophisticated Ladies,and Lend Me a Tenor have

been seen at the Kennedy Center. His awardsshelf holds Tonys, Drama Desk Awards, anEmmy, and Oscar nominations. He waselected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1991.

WILLIAM IVEY LONG's costume designsfor Guys awl Dolls and Lend Me a Tenorhave been seen at the Kennedy Center. Hiscostumes for the upcoming Crazy for You

are one of the show's delights. He hascostumed Liza Minnelli, Patti La Belle.Mick Jagger. and Siegfried and Roy.

THARON MUSSER's lighting designshave been seen at the Kennedy Center inThe Secret Garden, A Chorus Line, WhoseLife Is It Anyway?, 42nd Street, andPacific Overt //MS.

In addition to her designs for plays andmusicals. she has provided lighting for the.Jose Limon Dance Company, the Dallasaml Miami opera comptmies,American Ballet Theatre. Musser hasreceived three Tony Awards.

11

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NOW, WHO WAS

GL 2Z THAT /N...?Film adaptations of Neil Simon's plays have frequentlystaned actors different from those who originated the roleson Broadway So many actors have performed in tounng,stock, regional, and dinner theater productions of the plays that 0it's hard to keep up For what Simon works were the actors listed belowthe original stars on Broadway? How many of the plays have beenseen at the Kennedy Center?

tArt Carney and Walter Matthau were the original stars ofthis comedy, which maybe Simon's most popular play.

, In what musical did these four later-famous dancersappear as members of the chorus: Donna McKechnie. Baayork Lee.Margo Sappington. and Graciele Daniele'?

3. Irene Worth won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress and Mercedes Reuhlwon the award for Best Actress for their mother-daughter portrayals in this PulitzerPrize-winning play.

4. Richard Benjamin, Connie Stevens, and Anthony Perkins appeared in this not-too-successful 1966 comedy about an ultra-conservative girl who is pursued by two ultra-

liberal suitors.

Se Sid Caesar played seven roles in this musical based on a Patrick Dennis novel ofthe same name.

aMartin Short and Bernadette Peters appeared in this 1993 musical adaptation of

Simon's 1977 film.

Z. Jason Alexander, one of the stars of TV's "Seinfeld," was a featured actor in thiscomedy about Eugene Jerome's start in show business.

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o Robert Redford made his last Broadway appearance opposite Elizabeth Ashley inthis 196:3 comedy, set in a fifth-floor walk-up.

9. George c. Scott and Maureen Stapleton appeared in this "suite" play.

100 'ITs ('olumbo. Peter Falk, had the urban blues in this 1971 hit.

Answow on Page 12.

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The Kennedy CenterJames D Wolfensohn, Chairman

Lawrence J Waken PresidentDerek E Gordon Associate Managing Director

for Education

Funding of the Performance Plus programis provided by the U S Department of Education

the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund

Writer. John C CarrProduction Photos. Carol Rosegg

Answers toPlay Quiz, p. 111. The Odd Couple2. Pim? ises, Ponrses3 Lost in Yonkers4. The Star Spangled Girl5 Little Me6. The Goodbye Girl7 Broadway Bound8. Barefoot in the Park9. Plaza Suite10. The Prisoner of

Second Awn

Th© spotlight onThe ter discussion

will be held onThursday, 'Emil 13,

from 6- :45 pomo in theEisenhower Theater.

None of these shows hasplayed the KennedyCenter.

Give yourself one pointfor each correct answer.Total. 10 points

10-9: You're "BroadwayBound"

8-6: 0 K., "Come BlowYour Horn"

5-3: You.' e "13areloot Inthe Park"

.2-0: You're "Lost inYonkers"

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