Review: LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR at Desert Theatreworks

Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor is a brilliant comedy with a great deal of bite, but without the underlying tone of sexism aimed at entitled women that Simon’s work sometimes displays. Desert Theatreworks presents a top-notch production with an A-list cast that more than does justice to the script. I found the production hilarious and urge everyone to attend.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor is the fictionalized story of the writers’ group for Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, which ran live on NBC from February 25, 1950 through June 5, 1954. Your Show of Shows gave many comic geniuses their start — Carl Reiner and Imogene Coca, for example, appeared with Caesar. My mother once mentioned that she and my father would not go out on Saturday nights when the program was on the air because of its brilliant comedy sketches and the novelty of television at the time.

Laughter focuses on the writers and portrays their farcical interactions during the run of the show. Although they view each other as family, the family group is quite dysfunctional at times. Almost all of them are Jewish liberals, with memories of Hitler fresh in their minds. To coin an anachronism, they view McCarthyism as Nazism-lite. The writers practically worship their star, Max Prince, even though his off-camera meshugas, including substance abuse, threatens to destroy him. Only later do they realize how much he has protected them from the corporate types at NBC and chosen to bear the brunt of their abuse himself.

According to DTW’s write-up, in addition to Max Prince as Sid Caesar, playwright Neil Simon called himself Lucas Brickman, the most sane member of the crew. Tony Webster became Brian Doyle, an Irishman getting picked on for being a “goy” in an overwhelmingly Jewish group whose members, post WWII, were not particularly fond of Christians. Sheldon Keller became Milt Fields, Larry Gelbart — the Larry Gelbart from MASH — became Kenny Franks, Mel Tolkin — later of The Dick Van Dyke Show — became Val Slotsky, and Mel Brooks became the hilarious hypochondriac, Ira Stone. I don’t know if Sid Caesar and the writers were accurately portrayed, but if so, it’s no wonder Neil Simon changed their names. By the way, Caesar had female writers in the mid-1950’s, Lucille Kallen and Selma Diamond, whom Neil Simon combined into Carol Wyman.

Director Tanner Lieser put together a zany production that showcases why Your Show of Shows kept television audiences roaring with laughter; the stage audience does the same. I laud his success in molding a multi-ethnic cast into a group of primarily Jewish people whose ethnicity is important to the story. The only thing I would have done differently is that I would have switched Ron Young’s Irishman, Brian, with Willie Eide’s Ashkenazi Jewish Milt; the two roles are similar, and the actors’ physical appearances would have fit better with the roles’ ethnicities if the casting were reversed. I note, however, that as an Ashkenazi Jew myself, I am programmed to see such things; I doubt too many other people would notice.

I’m sure every director holds his or her breath to see if the cast can pull off a zany comedy. This entire cast delivers, with the minor nitpick that some of the accents were inconsistent. The verbal pacing was perfect. It’s hard to be objective about this A-list cast when I’ve worked with some of them and previously admired the performances of the rest. The cast consists of Sheldon Safir (as Max Prince); Herb Schultz (Ira Stone); Willie Eide (Milt Fields); Val Slotsky (Stan Jenson); Ron Young (Brian Doyle); Jeremiah Woods (Kenny Franks); Lucas Brickman (Bryce Izurrieta); Lee Rice (as the relatively sane female writer, Carol); and Renee Borgeau (as Helen, Max’s long-suffering secretary). By the way, Sheldon Safir, Herb Schultz, and Willie Eide steal scenes so effectively that they should be locked up for theft.

Senator Joe McCarthy was in his heyday during the time that Your Shows of Shows was on the air. Yet, according to a blog post by a Jewish educator, the show was never overtly political. nextact.org/geniuses. However, the play itself is political in that it portrays the writers as terrified of McCarthy. Of course, McCarthy is long gone, so why did DTW choose this particular comedy for their 2025-26 season? I leave it to all of you to think of your own response, because I don’t want to be overtly political in this review. And definitely go to see this show — you’ll laugh your heads off, while crying inside over McCarthyism and Nazism, and possibly more recent manifestations of authoritarianism. OK, I’m being political.

Desert Theatreworks is located at the Indio Performing Arts Center, 45175 Fargo Street, Indio, CA 92201. The show will run from now through Sunday, February 15th. Evening performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Sunday matinees take place at 2:00 p.m.  Purchase tickets and obtain further information at www.dtworks.org or call (760) 980-1455.

The rest of DTW’s 2025-26 season consists of:

The Graduate (February 14-March 8, 2026) — Black Box Theater, presented in the round.

The Cher Show (March 13-April 4, 2026).