Neil Simon Has Died

[Jordan Catalano]

Neil Simon passed away today at 91. 

 

Rest In Peace, sir. 

[dramamama611]

I'm not finding any news articles.

[poisonivy2]

TMZ says yes.

http://www.tmz.com/2018/08/26/neil-simon-dead-dies/

[BroadwayConcierge]

Wow. Another legend gone. Rest in peace.

If he doesn't warrant all the theaters dimming their lights this week, I don't know who will...

[Lavieboheme3090]

Years ago I was an revival of "Lost in Yonkers" at intermission I was talking to a friend of mine involved in the production and I told her "I'm really enjoying the show, but the older gentleman next to me is LIVING for it." To which she replied "Oh that's good. That Neil Simon!"

We lost a true legend today.

[castlestreet]

What a man, what a legacy and what a life!

RIP

[Kad]

It’s easy to forget that he remains the most successful American playwright, and is the only writer to have two works in the list of the top 10 longest running plays (Barefoot in the Park and Brighton Beach Memoirs).
He WAS American theatrical comedy. Most of his plays don’t hold up very well and he’s fallen out of favor, but his legacy is immense.

[Alex Kulak2]

Every playwright should read Neil Simon. The Eugene Trilogy is the benchmark for how to be heart-renching and hilarious at the same time. RIP Mr. Simon.

[ggersten]

Kad said: "It’s easy to forget that he remains the most successful American playwright, and is the only writer to have two works in the list of the top 10 longest running plays (Barefoot in the Park and Brighton Beach Memoirs).
He WAS American theatrical comedy. Most of his plays don’t hold up very well and he’s fallen out of favor, but his legacy is immense."

He wasn't just a successful playwright.  TV, Film, even his autobiographies.  It's hard to think of any other American author who has entertained - and will continue to entertain - more people.  There may never be another American playwright like him, if only because American audiences just don't support non-musicals as they once did.  

[BroadwayConcierge]

His New York Times obituary, written by Charles Isherwood, is up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/obituaries/neil-simon-dead.html

[Jarethan]

I will always love 'The Eugene Trilogy', Lost in Yonkers, and Barefoot in the Park.  I recognize it is an American classic, but I never much liked The Odd Couple (and I saw it with Art Carney and Walter Matthau, among other casts).  I just didn't think lines like 'its either new cheese or old meat' (close enough) were funny.  So, just based on those works, his place in theatre history would be well assured and deserved.

That said, I am amazed how many of his hit plays are dated to the point of being unwatchable.  I recently watched California Suite and Plaza Suite on TCM and -- although I stuck to the end -- they were both pretty much unwatchable.  The humor is lame, the situations forced, etc.  With the exception of Maggie Smith, Jane Fonda, Barbara Harris and Michael Caine, all of the acting was over the top in a bad way...and Fonda and Harris's vignettes themselves were positively awful.

Same thing IMO with Prisoner of Second Avenue and Last of the Red Hot Lovers, both big hits, when I saw them in Summer Stock (in solid productions, with Broadway veterans in key roles).  

I imagine that he will always be respected for the first plays I mentioned above, for his ability to turn out hits in the period that was in retrospect the beginning of the end for comedy on Broadway, etc., but that he will be viewed as the successor to Philip Barry, most of whose plays are also terribly dated although Philadelphia Story and Holiday will always be classics.

 

[dramamama611]

Barefoot in the Park is probably my favorite play of his. Just so full of love.

 

This has taken the wind out of may sails today.  

[ACL2006]

I have to imagine Broadway will be dimming their lights for him sometime this week.

[Tom5]

IMO: Funniest play: The Odd Couple

         Best Play: The Eugene Trilogy (Pick any one)

         Best Screenplay The Heartbreak Kid

          Most Unappreciated Play:  Rose's Dilemma

        

[After Eight]

I'm so sorry to hear this news. 

I so loved Come Blow Your Horn, Barefoot in the Park and The Star-Spangled Girl. A treasure-trove of memories they hold for me.

Neil Simon never received enough credit as a book writer of musicals. His books for Little Me and Promises, Promises are two of the funniest and best ever.

What a loss for our theatre.

 

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Nothing to say but thank you, Mr. Simon. Godspeed

[sabrelady]

Don't forget his career as a show "doctor". ( Hence the nickname "Doc" Simon)   His touch is present in so many shows/films it would be impossible to list.

I was always partial to The Gingerbread Lady and I Ought to Be In Pictures and the Fortune Cookie is still pretty funny. ( well at least ot me!) Although part of the credit must go to the stars who knew how to play it.

[green waver]

 Possibly his most significant surgery as a script doctor was sprucing up the monologues in A Chorus Line.If he had gone public, he would have won another Tony.

[devonian.t]

I was watching The Cheap Detective for the umpteenth time this morning and Murder by Death is one of my favourite flat-out comedies.  Mr Simon gave a great deal of pleasure to this world.

[CarlosAlberto]

sabrelady said: "Don't forget his career as a show "doctor". ( Hence the nickname "Doc" Simon) His touch is present in so many shows/films it would be impossible to list.

I was always partial to The Gingerbread Lady and I Ought to Be In Pictures and the Fortune Cookie is still pretty funny. ( well at least ot me!) Although part of the credit must go to the stars who knew how to play it."

He got his nickname “Doc” from his older brother. When he was a kid Neil went around wearing a stethoscope around his neck. 

[jo]

Thanks for the many happy memories!  Rest in Peace, Neil Simon!

[everythingtaboo]

What a damn shame. They should dim the lights every night this week fo him.

[green waver]

sabrelady said: "Don't forget his career as a show "doctor". ( Hence the nickname "Doc" Simon) His touch is present in so many shows/films it would be impossible to list.

I was always partial to The Gingerbread Lady and I Ought to Be In Pictures and the Fortune Cookie is still pretty funny. ( well at least ot me!) Although part of the credit must go to the stars who knew how to play it."

Neil Simon had nothing to do with The Fortune Cookie, although it's a personal favorite of mine as well. the script is by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.

[JBroadway]

What a loss. 

I love everything of his that I've read/seen, but I have a special place in my heart for the Eugene trilogy, which struck me in such a profoundly personal way. Aside from being hilarious, it's one of the few pieces of dramatic fiction that has made me cry simply upon reading it (usually I need to be IN the theatre for the waterworks to start). 

I also have very fond memories of performing in "The Good Doctor" in high school, which was my first exposure to his work. I played the "Sneezer," as well as the old man in the "Too Late For Happiness" portion - both of which were among my favorite scenes I've ever acted in. 

 

"Is it too late for happiness? 

Too late for flings? 

Too late late to ask for love?

There aren't many springs

Left for people who spend their nights

Waiting for the day,

For someone to share delights

Long since passed away." 

 

If they don't give him a full light-dimming, the ceremony will have lost any shred of credibility it has left. 

[Miles2Go2]

Thank you for the laughs, Mr. Simon and I apologize for the junior college production of Barefoot in the Park I was part of in the early to mid-eighties. I played Victor Velasco and I’m fairly certain I was horrendous in the part. (I’m much better sitting in the audience than on the stage). May all the theatres across the world dim their lights for you.