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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 381 836 CS 508 903 AUTHOR Carr, John C. TITLE Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rdFloor." Spotlight on Theater Notes. INSTITUTION John F. Kennedy Center for thePerforming Arts, Washington, D.C. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC. PUB DATE [95) NOTE 13p.; Produced by the Performance PlusProgram, Kennedy Center Education Department.Funding also provided by the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund.For other guides in this series, seeCS 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) ABSTRACT This booklet presents a variety ofmaterials concerning Neil Simon's play "Laughter onthe 23rd Floor." After a brief introduction to the play, thebooklet presents a profile of the playwright, several lists of hisaccomplishments, information on his work for television, a quiz aboutplays, biographical information on the producer, director, actors anddesigners, and a 3-item list of additional readings. (RS) Reproductions supplicd by EDRS arethe bestthat can be made from the original document. 3 0.7=1976 =BUM 011111.04., r=:...orre rea=a.ftwon rreweear.r. ....cr==Z=crrrr. 10:assarrr. 11117:14 Milm=swas al 1)0 IQ 11, as c==-) MS6 4, elf =al Mao Ow, ox C2h mt. Piceb ant aka amoral re:a CL O a 0 p Clw0. L.e 170Z7.0Z.2017°..zzt,ZT 4:14,C1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and lmorovoment EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) ilThis document has boon reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily renresent official OERI position or policy. ':sieNear. I /d0 f _re 2 a ACCT rpm/ AVAII API 0 r; - ° rr 01- .91a, inmearegelmirkii' 1111111.111.111.1111.11.1.11.1111_,... n 1953, two extraordinary events The play Laughter on the 23rd Floor (our happened in my life: I got married and offices were in a high-rise building in New 11became a writer on "Your Show of York) is a picture that closely resembles the Shows," starring Sid Caesar. Both events real life that went on in the writers' room. made me extremely happy. I was 26 years Mostly we laughed, talked, argued, and ate, old, and on the first day I went to work on anything to put off the inevitable writing. But the Caesar staff, I was awed by the gifts and when we worked we burned the midnight oil, talents of the other writersMel Brooks, and sometimes burned the drapes and Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart (who went on to desktops as well. There is very little create "M*A*S*H"), Mel Tolkin, my brother exaggeration in the play. There was also very Danny, and a few others. After two years on great pressure on all of us to deliver on the "Your Show of Shows," Sid Caesar moved on air, as NBC feared our show was too esoteric, to have his own show, "Caesar's Hour," taking too smart for the new rural audiences who most of the writing staff with him. Sid Caesar were getting their first TVs. This pressure was big in every way--in his size, hishumor, was mostly felt by Sid Caesar, who began to his appetite, his anger, and his take tranquilizers and Scotch to calm his love of his writers. During this nerves. But it never held hack his anger in period, America was besieged dealing with less-than- imelligent network by Communist hunters led by executives and threats to America by men Joseph McCarthy and Roy like Senator McCarthy. Cohn. Writers, actors, I've always believed humor is fed by directors, and everyone conflict. We had our share of both, and I connected with the arts lived in hope that Laughter on the 23rd Floor will fear of being put on their give you an intimate picture and a front row blacklist, which made you seat as to what went on in the writers' room F ®r television in the early '50s. viewers of a unemployable in television. certain age, "Your Show of Shows" was a weekly addiction. An hour- long variety show starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, it claimed the major share of audience attentionn Saturday evenings from 1950 to 1954. Besides Neil Simon, writers for the show who went on to other considerable successes included Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, and Larry Nlbart. Lists are sometimes the best way to put Neil Simon's accomplishments in perspective. Lists on this and the next three pages try to do that Images of cornucopias, never-emptying cups, and Niagara Falls come to mind when one considers Neil Simon's prolific writing. His first widely seen theatrical work was as co-writer with his brother, Danny, for sketches they contributed to the Broadway musicals Catch a Star (1955) and New Faces (1956). Since 1961 he has supplied Broadway with one hit show after another Here is a list of Simon's 27 plays to date. How many have you Tr seen9 Barefoot in the Park Biloxi Blues Brighton Beach Memoirs Broadway Bound California Suite Chapter Two Come Blow Your Horn >f:). V. Fools The Gingerbread Lady God's Favorite Little Me The Good Doctor The Goodbye Girl I Ought to ?Re in Pictures Jake's Women Last of the Red Hot Lovers Laughter on the 23rd Floor Little Me Lost in Yonkers The Odd Couple Plaza Swte The Prisoner of Second Avenue Promises, Promises Rumors The Star Spangled Girl erect5 The Sunshine Boys Sweet Charity : ItBroaorg tic; a-paton They're Playing Our Song "ay: This spring his 28th show, rdonuinent V,eil London Swte, will open oflaghter,beit." off-Broadway. saint 'haveto ,/ Stemon. '0 as George in Chapter Two, and as Eugene.in Red Suff044: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway Bound. Amalgams of himself and "Sit 114, 4100ge at a Pawn" his brother, Danny, appear elsewhere, as they do in the character of Lucas in Laughter on "I am the most alive the 2.3rd Floor. Simon's parents, wives, and former co-workers turn up in other plays. and most fulfilled Born in the Bronx in 1927, Simon began his sitting alone in a room, career writing for an Army camp newspaper. After discharge, he became a mailroom clerk hoping that those words for Warner Bros.' New York office. Soon he forming on the paper in was writing for radio, providing material for the Smith-Corona will Robert Q. Lewis and Tallulah Bankhead, and then for television, where he put words in the be the first perfect play mouths of Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, Red ever writtenin a single Buttons, Garry Moore, and, most famously, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. draft." After he and his brother provided sketches Thus spake Neil Simon in 1979, in the for two Broadway revues in the 1950s, he introductory essay to an anthology of his gave his attention to becoming a full-time plays. Nothing that has happened in the playwright. With Come Blow Your Horn in intervening 16 years seems to havechanged 1961, he began a succession of plays that that fascinating disclosure. The would eventually make him the most popular of American creator of more hit playwrights continues to shows than anyone in surprise and delight American theater history. audiences with the funny- Simon has received sad observations that multiple award he and the Smith- nominations and awards, Corona turn outsingle including the Tony, Emmy, Oscar, draft or not. Writer's Guild, and (London) Evening Although he has been called Standard. He received the a "laugh machine," a Three Neil Pulitzer Prize in 1991. In 1975 "wisecracker," and a master of Simon plays he received a Special Tony Award for his "overall "one-line zingers," Simon has stand among the longest - always shown usbetween, in. running Broadway contribution to the theater." and around the lineswhat productions: He has been profiled on the London critic Herbert Kretzmer Barefoot in the Park PBS series "American Masters." calls "the pain, aspiration, and 1,530 performances Realizing that Simon writes panic behind all those flip Brighton Beach Memoirs about himself and those he phrases." 1,2P9 performances knows, and recognizing that his One of the secrets of Simons Promises. Promises plays (and their screen success lies in the factthat his 1,281 performances adaptations) reach vast audi- humor starts, as he pins it, "withcharacters." ences, it is no wonder that histhird wife, And since, with few exceptions, hisplays are Diane Landers, required a pre-nuptial agree- his autobiography, he knows those ment that prevents him from writing about characters well. Ilis experiences throughout her or her (laughter during her lifetime. So, his life and his relationships withand although Simon has described himself as "that observations of his family, friends, and person sitting in the corner who'sobserving acquaintances all appear in variousguises. it all," we can forget about his sharing Simon himself appears many times, most observations on his current domestic life. notably as Buddy in ( 'nine Mow lourHorn. lit that case, where to next, Mr. Simon? 42.9 dtY Not Only C4' does Neil Simon hold the \) playwriting record for the greatest number of hits in the 4 American theater, but he also holds the record for the '. 'SO greatest number of plays 1.4.3w 471b adapted for film: Come Blow Your Horn Barefoot in the Park The Odd Couple The Star Spangled Girl Last of the Red Hot Lovers The Gingerbread Lady (under the title Only When I Laugh) E'-kv 0- .r Plaza Suite The Sunshine Boys 4 I Ought to Be in Pictures ; ? I The Prisoner of Second Avenue Chapter Two lit Brighton Beach Memoirs Biloxi Blues I Broadway Bound Lost In Yonkers Additionally, the musical Sweet Charity, for which he wrote the book, was also filmed.