First Published in 1997.The 16 essays and interviews in this volume explore the background and works of Neil Simon, the most successful playwright in American history. Several of the entries trace Simon's Jewish heritage and its influence on his plays. Although Simon is best known as a writer of a remarkable series of hit Broadway comedies, the contributors to this book have identified a number of "serious" recurring themes in his work, suggesting that a reassessment of the playwright as a dramatist is appropriate. Three interviews with Simon and his longtime producer yield valuable facts about the playwright that will, along with the critical essays, aid the scholar seeking new insights into contemporary American drama in general and Neil Simon in particular.
Introduction, Prologue, Funny Money in New York and Pendon: Neil Simon and Alan Ayckbourn, Neil Simon's Jewish Heritage, Washington Heights Doc, Funny, He Does Look Jewish, Neil Simon and the Funny Jewish Blues, Beyond Laughter and Forgetting:, Echoes of the Holocaust in Neil Simon s Lost in Yonkers, "A Perfect and an Upright Man":, A Reassessment of Neil Simons God's Favorite, Neil Simon's Dramatic Heritage, Men in Fancy Clothes; or, Menander on, The Neil Simon-Eugene O'Neill Dialogue, Patterns Neils Women "The Fruit Brigade": Neil Simons Gay Characters, The Ominous Apple, They're Playing My Book: The Musicals of Neil Simon, Dialogues Jakes Womem A Dialogue, Producing Neil Simon: An Interview with Emanuel Azenberg, An Interview with Neil Simon, An Interview with Neil Simon.
Biography
Gary Konas (Edited by)
