This week, I took a detour from my usual readings of history, literature, and languages and read some of Neil Simon’s plays. It was a rough week and, basically, I needed to laugh. And I did–aloud and a lot.

I love plays. I do not often read modern plays if I have access to see them live or on video. When my daughter and I visit New York, I want to see a play and she wants to see a musical. So, we typically do both. We were recently in London and saw a play in the West End, my first time there, and it was quite a different experience. Celebrity doesn’t seem to be as important in London as it is in New York. It was easier for me to engage in the story. That was nice.

Part of my selection of the collection of Neil Simon’s plays was nostalgia, as I was born in the 60’s. He was the master of storytelling. Some of my favorites movie adaptations of his plays are: “The Odd Couple” (1968), “Plaza Suite”, “Barefoot in the Park”, “The Goodbye Girl”, and top choice, “Seems Like Old Times”( the movie with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn—“I have to get my feet scraped”).

The Odd Couple

The first play I read, from Volume 1, was “The Odd Couple” with the brilliant performances of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau narrating in my head. They were both nominated for an Academy Award that year for Best Actor. There was no ad-libbing in this performance. They pretty much stuck to the script word-for-word. Why wouldn’t they—it’s the words of Neil Simon, who could say it better?

Oscar and Felix are good friends whose bond is challenged when they live together. Felix has just been kicked out of his home by Blanche, and we soon understand why. Felix is a neat-freak and a hypochondriac and clashes with Oscar’s messy, stereotypical “man cave” lifestyle.

Felix: “All right, cut it out, Oscar. That’s the way I am. I get hurt easily. I can’t help it”

Oscar: “You’re not going to cry, are you? I think all those tears dripping on the arm is what gave you bursitis.”

Soon we see the beginnings of a marriage-type relationship, a la 1960! Felix cooks, cleans (he even sprays their poker cards with Lysol), and nags! Oscar never keeps track of time, is inconsiderate, and grumpy.

Felix: “You said you would be home at seven. It is eight o’clock.”

Oscar: “So, what’s the problem?”

Felix: “If you knew you were going to be late, why didn’t you call me?”

Lemmon and Matthau play these parts to perfection. They soon learn to work out their differences and accept each other as they are. I love their friendship and the ending is perfect “Marriages may come and go, but the game must go on. So long Frances.

So long Blanche.”

Jack Lemmon is one of my favorite actors of all time. “Glengarry Glen Ross”, “The Apartment”, and “Mister Roberts” are my top Lemmon movies, followed by “China Syndrome”, “Save the Tiger”, and “The Fortune Cookie”.

Barefoot in the Park

Redford and Fonda [photo credit Everett collection]

“The play opens and Corie Bratter enters. She is lovely, young, and full of hope for the future”(105).

My second play to read of Neil Simon was “Barefoot in the Park” with the outstanding performances of Robert Redford and the very young Jane Fonda. This movie also included the incredible supporting actors Mildred Natwick, who plays Corie’s mother, Ethel, and Charles Boyer, Victor Velasco, the “Bluebeard of Forty-eighth Street”.

Corie is a free-spirited young woman from a wealthy family who recently married Paul Bratter, a conservative, uptight lawyer. They have just spent six heavenly nights on their honeymoon at the Plaza Hotel in Central Park and are moving into a fifth-floor apartment in Greenwich Village—six flights of stairs, if you count the stoop!

Oh, to be young and in love. Counting the minutes until you see one another after a long day at the office. “Did you miss me today?” asks Corie after a long welcoming embrace. “No. You called me eight times…I don’t speak to you that much when I’m home.” Aw, I want to go back to those days (43 years ago!!)

This is one of my favorite performances by Redford, and in light of his recent passing, it was a nice remembrance. It is also one of the best films by the young, exuberant Jane Fonda. I love them together. It’s fun to watch Robert Reford play a young, handsome, curmudgeon. Did I mention that Redford is handsome?

As I mentioned in The Odd Couple movie, the cast of Barefoot stuck very close to the script of the original play. I did miss reading the ending scene of the movie where Corie finds Paul barefoot in New York’s Central Park, jumping over benches. This was not part of the play. Also missing is the Staten Ferry ride to the Albanian restaurant for some Uzus. “You won’t be able to make a fist for three days” after drinking them. Paul and Ethel sitting, frozen and hungover, fistless, watching Corie and Victor loving life. Paul exclaims “My teeth feel soft…I admire anyone who has three portions of pooflapoo pie”.

Corie and Paul have some bumps along the way even contemplating divorce “six weeks does not a week make”? Simon brings them back together, back in love, “keep singing, darling.”

Work Cited

The Collected Plays of Neil Simon, Volume 1. Penguin Group, 1986.