| I was thinking the same thing..... | |
| Posted by: portenopete 03:00 pm EDT 08/27/18 | |
| In reply to: I'm rather surprised at the comparatively small number of posts here re: Neil Simon's passing vis-a-vis his place in Broadway history - PlayWiz 11:23 am EDT 08/27/18 | |
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| I'm almost 53. My formative years in regard to theatre were roughly 1975-1985, by which point I was well on my way to doing it for a career. Neil Simon was already a synonym for "playwright" by the time I heard his name. As much as the overused term "He WAS Broadway" can be true, it was true of him. I remember combing through the Burns Mantle Best Play volumes and marvelling over the photos of Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley in BAREFOOT IN THE PARK and seeing that Art Carney (and not Tony Randall) was the original F.U. in THE ODD COUPLE. And those crazy pictures of George C. Scott in PLAZA SUITE looking like he was about to explode. But by the time I started SEEING the plays I had begun to develop a critical awareness and even the critically-praised Brooklyn Trilogy struck me as rather old-fashioned and gag-laden. I saw LOST IN YONKERS the same day as SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION and was appalled when it beat out the latter at the Tonys and for the Pulitzer. (Funny that SIX DEGREES' revival last year was met with a similar "no longer relevant" vibe from a lot of the critical establishment.) I liked Jesse Green's piece in the Times, which posits that there was a cohesive and uniform culture that Simon wrote to and that that is simply not there anymore. Just like no late-night hosts will ever equal Carson's ratings and no sitcom will touch M*A*S*H or ALL IN THE FAMILY, I can't see a straight play ever running the way Simon's did, not to mention the years when there were three or four running simultaneously. I thought that David Cromer would have been the director to bring out unforeseen nuance in Simon's writing and I had high hopes for the BRIGHTON BEACH/BROADWAY BOUND revivals, but I was left a little cold by the first one and the second never made it in front of an audience. I know that Brantley was championing a Berkshires (?) revival of THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE a couple of years ago: perhaps that will see the light of day in NYC sometime soon? Presumably there will be no debate about whether or not to dim the lights for Neil Simon. |
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| Previous: | I'm rather surprised at the comparatively small number of posts here re: Neil Simon's passing vis-a-vis his place in Broadway history - PlayWiz 11:23 am EDT 08/27/18 |
| Next: | re: I was thinking the same thing..... - AlanScott 12:34 pm EDT 08/28/18 |
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