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Neil Simon (1927-2018)
Martin Neil Simon, better known as Neil Simon (1927-2018) was an American comic playwright whose career as a stage and screenwriter spanned over fifty years. He wrote more than thirty plays and an almost equal number of screenplays, and he is easily one of the most popular and widely-produced playwrights in American theatre history (1). He had a difficult childhood, growing up in New York during the financial hardships of the Great Depression, and listening to his parents' constant fighting. As a kid, he sought refuge in movies, learning to use "comedy as a defense mechanism."
Neil Simon, 2005, at an after-party for The Odd Couple in New York
Neil Simon c. 1920s
As Simon explained:
"I think part of what has made me a comedy writer is the blocking out of some of the really ugly, painful things in my childhood and covering it up with a humorous attitude. I knew that whenever things were so terrible at home, the best thing for me was to go to the movies - do something to laugh until I was able to forget what was hurting (2)."
Simon started out in television, often collaborating with Danny Simon, his brother who was also a comedy writer. When the television and film industry relocated to the west coast, Simon wrote his first major play. The autobiographical Come Blow Your Horn (1961) was an enormous hit (677 performances), launching Simon's stage career and film career with a 1963 adaptation starring Frank Sinatra (3). In the 1960s and 70s, Simon was ruling Broadway, churning out hits as the most commercially successful playwright in New York (see: Neil Simon's Selected Credits). He won his first Best Author Tony Award in 1965 for The Odd Couple, making him a household name and "the hottest new playwright on Broadway" (2).
Playbill for the Broadway premiere of Come Blow Your Horn (1961)
Neil Simon and Goldie Hawn, on the film set of Seems Like Old Times (1980)
Throughout his highly prolific career, Simon continued to draw on his life and experiences: his childhood struggles, his time in the Army Air Force Reserves, and his five marriages. His work explores the private moments between spouses, friends, and enemies, finding humor the everyday lives of relatable people. While continuing to write for the stage, Simon was also writing for
the screen, not only adapting many of his own plays for film but also creating original screenplays (see: Neil Simon's Selected Credits).
By the time he died at age 91, Neil Simon had received countless awards and accolades for his enormous body of work, including:
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4 Academy Award nominations
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4 Emmy Award nominations
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4 Tony Awards, 10 nominations
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1 Golden Globe, 2 nominations
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4 Writers Guild of America Awards
Additionally, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Lost in Yonkers in 1991, and in 1983, the Alvin Theatre on Broadway was renamed the Neil Simon Theatre (see: Neil Simon's Selected Credits).
The Neil Simon Theatre
Kevin Spacey and Irene Worth in Lost in Yonkers
Neil Simon's Selected Credits (5)
Selected Plays and Musicals on Broadway
1961: Come Blow Your Horn (677 performances)
1963: Barefoot in the Park (1,530)
1963: Little Me (257)
1965: The Odd Couple (964)
1966: The Star-Spangled Girl (261)
1966: Sweet Charity (608)
1968: Plaza Suite (1,097)
1968: Promises, Promises (1,281)
1969: Last of the Red Hot Lovers (706)
1972: The Sunshine Boys (538)
1973: The Prisoner of Second Avenue (798)
1976: California Suite (445)
1977: Chapter Two (857)
1979: They're Playing Our Song (1,082)
1983: Brighton Beach Memoirs (1,299)
1985: Biloxi Blues (524)
1986: Broadway Bound (756)
1988: Rumors (535)
1991: Lost in Yonkers (780)
1993: Laughter on the 23rd Floor (320)
1993: The Goodby Girl (188)
2000: The Dinner Party (364)
Barefoot in the Park (1963)
Walter Matthau and Art Carney in The Odd Couple (1965)
Gwen Verdon, Sweet Charity (1966)
Matthew Broderick, Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)
Martin Short and Bernadette Peters in The Goodbye Girl (1993)
​Selected Screenplay Credits:​
1967: Barefoot in the Park *
1968: The Odd Couple *
​1970: The Out-of-Towners
1971: Plaza Suite *
1972: Last of the Red Hot Lovers *
1975: The Prisoner of 2nd Avenue *
1975: The Sunshine Boys *
1976: Murder by Death
1977: The Goodbye Girl
1978: California Suite *
1979: Chapter Two *
1980: Seems Like Old Times
1985: The Slugger's Wife *
1986: Brighton Beach Memoirs *
1988: Biloxi Blues *
1999: The Marrying Man
1993: Lost in Yonkers *
1998: The Odd Couple II
*Adapted from play by the same title
​Selected Awards and Accolades:
1965: Tony Award, Best Author, The Odd Couple
1967: Evening Standard Theatre Award, Sweet Charity
1968: Sam S. Shubert Award
1969: Writers Guild of America, Best Written Comedy, The Odd Couple
1970: Writers Guild of America, Best Original Screenplay, The Out-of-Towners
1972: Cue Entertainer of the Year Award
1975: Writers Guild of America, Best Adapted Screenplay, The Sunshine Boys
1979: Writers Guild of America, Screen Laurel Award
1981: Honorary Doctorate, Hofstra University
1983: The Alvin Theatre on Broadway was renamed the Neil Simon Theatre
1983: Inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame
1975: Special Tony Award for significant contributions to the theatre
1977: Golden Globe, Best Screenplay, The Goodbye Girl
1983: New York Drama Critics' Circle, Best Play, Brighton Beach Memoirs
1983: Outer Critics Circle Award, Brighton Beach Memoirs
1985: Tony Award, Best Play, Biloxi Blues
1986: New York State Governor's Award
1989: American Comedy Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award
1991: Tony Award, Best Play, Lost in Yonkers
1991: Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Lost in Yonkers
1991: Drama Desk, Outstanding New Play, Lost in Yonkers
1995: Kennedy Center Honoree
2006: Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
​
California Suite
Broadway Premiere:
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
Directed by Gene Saks
June 10, 1976 - July 2, 1977
Run: 445 performances
by Neil Simon (5)
Playbill for the Broadway premiere of California Suite (1976) and the show's Playbill advertisement.
Opening Night Cast:
Act I, Scene One: Visitor from New York
Tammy Grimes ............................... Hannah Warren
George Grizzard ........................... William Warren
Act I, Scene Two: Visitor from Philadelphia
Barbara Barrie ............................ Millie Michaels
Jack Weston ................................ Marvin Michaels
Leslie Easterbrook .................................... Bunny
Act II, Scene One/Two: Visitors from London
Tammy Grimes ................................. Diana Nichols
George Grizzard ............................ Sidney Nichols
Act II, Scene Three: Visitors from Chicago
Barbara Barrie ............................ Beth Hollender
Tammy Grimes ................................ Gert Franklyn
George Grizzard .............................. Stu Franklyn
Jack Weston ................................. Mort Hollender
FUN FACT: Rue McClanahan (of later Golden Girls fame) filled in for Tammy Grimes for a week in April, 1977!
Barbara Barrie
George Grizzard
Tammy Grimes
Jack Weston
Leslie Easterbrook
"Visitor from New York": Tammy Grimes and George Grizzard as Hannah and William Warren
"Visitor from Philadelphia": Barbara Barrie as Millie Michaels
"Visitors from London": George Grizzard and Tammy Grimes as Sidney and Diana Nichols
"Visitors from Chicago": Barbara Barrie (Beth Hollender), Jack Weston (Mort Hollender), George Grizzard (Stu Franklyn), and Tammy Grimes (Gert Franklyn)
From the Critics
"For those of us who imagine Los Angeles as nothing but a long street in desperate search of a parking lot, Neil Simon's California Suite, which opened most joyously and triumphantly at the Eugene O'Neill Theater last night, will come as a vast relief. Although Mr. Simon has gone west, to become what is sometimes known as a Californian, his heart is still Manhattan, very dry and on the rocks. [...]
Here Mr. Simon is writing at his ebullient best. He tops his own jokes like a polevaulter setting records, and his language has the grace of the conversation we wish our friends could muster. Yet it is not merely his wisecracks sizzling stealthily across the stage with the multiple reverberations of a skidding firecracker, but his simple humanity and his skill at making the ridiculous near enough to be real to be something more than ridiculous."
- Clive Barnes, "Stage: 'California Suite' Opens"
The New York Times, June 11th, 1976
Critics also connected California Suite to Simon's earlier smash success, Plaza Suite, which opened in 1968 and ran for 1,097 performances. Plaza Suite uses the same vignette-style structure that gives snapshots of guests who rotate in and out of the same suite. However, it takes place in New York's famous Plaza Hotel, which is just as iconic as the Beverly Hills Hotel that provides the setting for California Suite.
Maureen Stapleton and George C. Scott in Plaza Suite (1968)
In 1976, famous Broadway caricaturist Al Hirschfeld published this illustration of the original Broadway cast of California Suite. (Left to Right): George Grizzard, Tammy James, Jack Weston, and Barbara Barrie (6).
Two years later, in 1978, Hirschfeld also caricatured the all-star film cast of California Suite (Left to Right): Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Michael Caine, and Maggie Smith (6). There's more info on the film below!
All-Star Film Adaptation
California Suite (1978)
Columbia Pictures
Directed by Herbert Ross
Screenplay Adapted by Neil Simon
Movie Cast:
"Visitors from London"
Maggie Smith ............................... Diana Barrie
Michael Caine ........................... Sidney Cochran
"Visitors from New York"
Jane Fonda ............................... Hannah Warren
Alan Alda ..................................... Bill Warren
Dana Plato ............................... Jenny Michaels
"Visitors from Philadelphia"
Walter Matthau ...................... Marvin Michaels
Elaine May ............................... Millie Michaels
Herb Edelman ............................ Harry Michaels
Denise Galik .......................................... Bunny
"Visitors from Chicago"
Richard Pryor ..................... Dr. Chauncey Gump
Gloria Gifford ................................. Lola Gump
Bill Cosby ............................ Dr. Willis Panama
Sheila Frazier ......................... Bettina Panama
Maggie Smith
Alan Alda and Jane Fonda
Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby
Walter Matthau
Maggie Smith and Michael Caine
Some Video Clips:
California Suite Trailer
Jane Fonda and Alan Alda
Richard Pryor, Gloria Gifford, Bill Cosby, Sheila Frazier
Maggie Smith and Michael Caine
Walter Matthau, Denise Galick, Elaine May
Siskel and Ebert Review the Film
Works Cited​
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Britannica, "Neil Simon."
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Koprince, Susan Fehrenbacher, Understanding Neil Simon (2002).
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IBDB, "Come Blow Your Horn."
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The Daily World, "How Neil Simon Wrote...."
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IBDB, "Neil Simon."
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Al Hirschfeld Foundation, "California Suite."
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