Neil Simon, Broadway’s master of comedy, dies at 91
Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as “The Odd Couple,’’ ‘’Barefoot in the Park” and his ‘’Brighton Beach” trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91.
Simon died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, said Bill Evans, a longtime friend and spokesman for Shubert Organization theatres.
In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was the American theatre’s most successful and prolific playwright, often chronicling middle class issues and fears. Starting with “Come Blow Your Horn’’ in 1961 and continuing into the next century, he rarely stopped working on a new play or musical. His list of credits is staggering.
The theatre world quickly mourned his death , including Tony Award-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, who tweeted that Simon “could write a joke that would make you laugh, define the character, the situation, and even the world’s problems.’’
Matthew Broderick, who in 1983 made his Broadway debut in Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs’’ and his movie debut in Simon’s “Max Dugan Returns,’’ added: “I owe him a career. The theatre has lost a brilliantly funny, unthinkably wonderful writer. And even after all this time, I feel I have lost a mentor, a father figure, a deep influence in my life and work.’’
For seven months in 1967, he had four productions running at the same time on Broadway: “Barefoot in the Park,’’ ‘’The Odd Couple,” ‘’Sweet Charity,” and ‘’The Star-Spangled Girl.”
Even before he launched his theatre 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.
Simon was the recipient of four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center honours (1995), four Writers Guild of America Awards and an American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement honour. In 1983, he had a Broadway theatre named after him when the Alvin was rechristened the Neil Simon Theatre.