Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as \u201cThe Odd Couple,\u201d \u2018\u2019Barefoot in the Park\u201d and his \u201cBrighton Beach\u201d trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91.<\/p>\n
Mr. Simon died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia, surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, said Bill Evans, his longtime friend and the Shubert Organization director of media relations.<\/p>\n
In the second half of the 20th century, Mr. Simon was the American theater\u2019s most successful and prolific playwrights, often chronicling middle-class issues and fears.<\/p>\n
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Starting with \u201cCome Blow Your Horn\u201d in 1961 and continuing into the next century, he rarely stopped working on a new play or musical. His list of credits is lengthy.<\/p>\n
Mr. Simon\u2019s stage successes included \u201cThe Prisoner of Second Avenue,\u201d \u2018\u2019Last of the Red Hot Lovers,\u201d \u2018\u2019The Sunshine Boys,\u201d \u2018\u2019Plaza Suite,\u201d \u2018\u2019Chapter Two,\u201d \u2018\u2019Sweet Charity\u201d and \u201cPromises, Promises,\u201d but there were other plays and musicals, too, more than 30 in all. Many of his plays were adapted into movies and one, \u201cThe Odd Couple,\u201d became a popular television series.<\/p>\n
For seven months in 1967, he had four productions running at the same time on Broadway: \u201cBarefoot in the Park\u201d; \u201cThe Odd Couple\u201d; \u201cSweet Charity\u201d; and \u201cThe Star-Spangled Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even before he launched his theater career, he made history as one of the famed stable of writers for comedian Sid Caesar that also included Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t write social and political plays, because I\u2019ve always thought the family was the microcosm of what goes on in the world,\u201d he told The Paris Review in 1992.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, a great talent. Playwright Neil Simon Dies at 91. The author of hits such as \u2018The Odd Couple\u2019 and \u201cPlaza Suite\u2019 was American theater\u2019s most successful and prolific playwright in the second half of the 20th century Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as \u201cThe Odd Couple,\u201d \u2018\u2019Barefoot in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7734,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/7734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}