The lights on Broadway dimmed tonight for a minute as a tribute to playwright Neil Simon, who died Sunday at age 91.
Simon, the creator of Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple and so many other Broadway staples, was remembered earlier in the afternoon by a gathering of friends and family at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. Attendees included Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (who appeared in The Odd Couple), Christine Baranski, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marsha Mason, Stockard Channing and Elizabeth Ashley. Speakers included longtime Simon publicist Bill Evans and Simon daughters Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.
After the service on the Upper East Side, the attendees went to Sardi’s, the eatery where tradition dictates you go to read the first reviews of your play.
The party was briefly interrupted at 6:30 p.m. Et, as guests went outside to see the theater district’s marquee lights going dark.
Simon, the creator of Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple and so many other Broadway staples, was remembered earlier in the afternoon by a gathering of friends and family at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. Attendees included Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (who appeared in The Odd Couple), Christine Baranski, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marsha Mason, Stockard Channing and Elizabeth Ashley. Speakers included longtime Simon publicist Bill Evans and Simon daughters Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.
After the service on the Upper East Side, the attendees went to Sardi’s, the eatery where tradition dictates you go to read the first reviews of your play.
The party was briefly interrupted at 6:30 p.m. Et, as guests went outside to see the theater district’s marquee lights going dark.
- 8/31/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Neil Simon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright of some of Broadway’s most successful comedies, including “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Odd Couple” and “Plaza Suite,” died Saturday night due to complications from pneumonia. He was 91.
Simon died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City with his wife, Elaine Joyce, and his daughters Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon at his side, a representative said.
Simon was an unparalleled success in theater and film. He wrote more than thirty plays and musicals that opened on Broadway over four decades. Sometimes multiple Simon plays ran on Broadway simultaneously.
Also Read: John McCain, Political Maverick and Former Gop Presidential Candidate, Dies at 81
Among his hits were “The Goodbye Girl,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Odd Couple,” “Sweet Charity,” “The Star Spangled Girl,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Biloxi Blues,” “Broadway Bound” and “Lost in Yonkers.”
Born Marvin Neil Simon in the Bronx, New York,...
Simon died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City with his wife, Elaine Joyce, and his daughters Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon at his side, a representative said.
Simon was an unparalleled success in theater and film. He wrote more than thirty plays and musicals that opened on Broadway over four decades. Sometimes multiple Simon plays ran on Broadway simultaneously.
Also Read: John McCain, Political Maverick and Former Gop Presidential Candidate, Dies at 81
Among his hits were “The Goodbye Girl,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Odd Couple,” “Sweet Charity,” “The Star Spangled Girl,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Biloxi Blues,” “Broadway Bound” and “Lost in Yonkers.”
Born Marvin Neil Simon in the Bronx, New York,...
- 8/26/2018
- by Rosemary Rossi
- The Wrap
Neil Simon, one of the rare late-20th century playwrights who was a brand name for plays such as “The Odd Couple” and “Barefoot in the Park,” died Sunday. He was 91.
A statement from his reps said, “Neil Simon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, died last night at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The cause was complications from pneumonia.”
“His wife, Elaine Joyce Simon, was at his bedside along with Mr. Simon’s daughters, Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.”
In addition to his four Oscar nominations and 17 Tony nominations, Simon’s works brought an unsurpassed 50 Tony nominations for their actors. His competitive Tony wins came for “The Odd Couple” (best playwright) and for best play for “Lost in Yonkers” and “Biloxi Blues.”
Beginning in the 1960s, Simon could guarantee good Broadway advance sales, a rare feat for a writer. He had more than 30 plays mounted on Broadway, including...
A statement from his reps said, “Neil Simon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, died last night at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The cause was complications from pneumonia.”
“His wife, Elaine Joyce Simon, was at his bedside along with Mr. Simon’s daughters, Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.”
In addition to his four Oscar nominations and 17 Tony nominations, Simon’s works brought an unsurpassed 50 Tony nominations for their actors. His competitive Tony wins came for “The Odd Couple” (best playwright) and for best play for “Lost in Yonkers” and “Biloxi Blues.”
Beginning in the 1960s, Simon could guarantee good Broadway advance sales, a rare feat for a writer. He had more than 30 plays mounted on Broadway, including...
- 8/26/2018
- by Richard Natale
- Variety Film + TV
Marsha Mason ("The Middle"), Mary Steenburgen ("30 Rock") and Kristen Vangsness ("Criminal Minds") are headlining the Pasadena Playhouse's second presentation of its 2012-2013 staged reading series, Hothouse at the Playhouse, on Jan. 8 and 9. Mason (left) will play the titular role in Ellen Simon's "Aunt Stossie's Coming for Five Days," a comedic drama about what happens when the uninvited enters your life. Also read: Pasadena Playhouse Names New Executive Director Directed by Dámaso Rodriguez, the play is set in a Central California beach town, three generations of women and two surfer boys navigate the...
- 1/6/2013
- by Greg Gilman
- The Wrap
The Pasadena Playhouse is accepting submissions for roles in its upcoming staged readings. The venerable 686-seat theater is experiencing a financial renaissance after a successful fundraising drive saw it recently bring in a seven-figure haul. It now has a new production slate, which includes four staged readings in the coming months, and is seeking actors to fill out the casts. The 2012–13 season of the Playhouse's Hothouse staged reading series, dedicated to the development of new plays, includes "Dear Galileo," a drama by Claire Willett about three women wrestling with their identity, the conflict between science and religion, and their fathers' legacies; "Aunt Stossie’s Coming for Five Days" by Ellen Simon, which is set in a Central California beach town, about three generations of women and two surfer boys who are navigating the entanglements of sex, health, and family after a tsunami warning sign goes up in their neighborhood; and...
- 10/17/2012
- backstage.com
In olden days of romantic comedy, couples met cute. In the anything-goes '90s, or at least in this frothy entertainment, they meet hostile. But other than that modern update, there's little difference between 20th Century Fox's "One Fine Day" and some of the finest merriments of the romantic comedy classics.
With appealing star performances from Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney, this charmer should attract very fine days at the boxoffice. It's not hard to conjure up Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant or elements of such classics as "His Girl Friday" or "The Awful Truth" when viewing this smartly pedigreed movie. It's high praise to group Pfeiffer and Clooney in that league, but their crustily silken performances are delightfully enticing.
In this present-day scenario, they're both harried divorcees, single- parent/professionals who are thrust into one not-so-fine day in which both their professional and personal lives are stretched to the limits. She's Melanie, an architect with a career-making presentation; he's Jack, a newspaper columnist whose job hinges on clearing up a controversial column he did linking the mayor with organized crime.
They're thrust together through their kids -- he has a girl, she a boy -- when, owing to the overstretched natures of their modern lives and a string of circumstances, they find themselves not only battling their big-day battles but having to bring their elementary-age kids along with them. For their mutual benefit, they agree on a kid-sharing plan -- she watches them during his critical press conference while he takes them during her architectural presentation.
Unlike the traditional screwball comedy formula where the male was the repressed straight-arrow and the female was the wacky free spirit who loosens him up, the straight man here is Melanie, whose compulsive organizational traits put her at odds with Jack's breezy nonchalance. She thrives on order, he thrives on chaos; and in the baffling chemistry of romance, opposites-attract sparks start to fly.
Perhaps the only flaw in this well-wrought romance is that the sparks start a little prematurely. Although we readily see their differences, scenes of each character grudgingly, or surprisingly, admiring the other are scant and other than the characters' surface physical desirability, their emotional attraction is somewhat underdeveloped and unconvincing.
Still, niggling aside, screenwriters Terrel Seltzer and Ellen Simon have concocted a brainy, madcap amusement with decidedly sympathetic characters. The certain proof -- you root for these two to get together.
The supporting characters are a terrific blend of sweet and sassy types. In particular, both kids, Mae Whitman and Alex D. Linz, are adorable, regular-type tots with no gloss of Hollywood sheen. On the adult side, Charles Durning is perfect as Jack's gruff, big-hearted editor, while sports scribe Pete Hamill is creatively cast as a spacey, perceptive land developer.
With his hand expertly on the narrative accelerator, director Michael Hoffman has fashioned a fast-paced, warm-hearted movie. With a frothy mix of wipes and split screens, as well as a keen eye for visual hilarity, Hoffman has cut a near-perfect crystalline comedy.
ONE FINE DAY
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
a Lynda Obst production
in association with Via Rosa Prods.
A Michael Hoffman film
Producer Lynda Obst
Director Michael Hoffman
Screenwriters Terrel Seltzer, Ellen Simon
Executive producers Kate Guinzburg,
Michelle Pfeiffer
Director of photography Oliver Stapleton
Production design David Gropman
Editor Garth Craven
Co-producer Mary McLaglen
Music James Newton Howard
Costume design Susie DeSanto
Casting Lora Kennedy
Special visual effects by VIFX
VIFX visual effects supervisor
Richard Hollander
Sound mixer Petur Hliddal
Color/stereo
Cast:
Melanie Parker Michelle Pfeiffer
Jack Taylor George Clooney
Maggie Taylor Mae Whitman
Sammy Parker Alex D. Linz
Lew Charles Durning
Yates Jr. Jon Roin Baitz
Elaine Lieberman Ellen Greene
Manny Feldstein Joe Frifasi
Frank Burroughs Pete Hamill
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
With appealing star performances from Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney, this charmer should attract very fine days at the boxoffice. It's not hard to conjure up Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant or elements of such classics as "His Girl Friday" or "The Awful Truth" when viewing this smartly pedigreed movie. It's high praise to group Pfeiffer and Clooney in that league, but their crustily silken performances are delightfully enticing.
In this present-day scenario, they're both harried divorcees, single- parent/professionals who are thrust into one not-so-fine day in which both their professional and personal lives are stretched to the limits. She's Melanie, an architect with a career-making presentation; he's Jack, a newspaper columnist whose job hinges on clearing up a controversial column he did linking the mayor with organized crime.
They're thrust together through their kids -- he has a girl, she a boy -- when, owing to the overstretched natures of their modern lives and a string of circumstances, they find themselves not only battling their big-day battles but having to bring their elementary-age kids along with them. For their mutual benefit, they agree on a kid-sharing plan -- she watches them during his critical press conference while he takes them during her architectural presentation.
Unlike the traditional screwball comedy formula where the male was the repressed straight-arrow and the female was the wacky free spirit who loosens him up, the straight man here is Melanie, whose compulsive organizational traits put her at odds with Jack's breezy nonchalance. She thrives on order, he thrives on chaos; and in the baffling chemistry of romance, opposites-attract sparks start to fly.
Perhaps the only flaw in this well-wrought romance is that the sparks start a little prematurely. Although we readily see their differences, scenes of each character grudgingly, or surprisingly, admiring the other are scant and other than the characters' surface physical desirability, their emotional attraction is somewhat underdeveloped and unconvincing.
Still, niggling aside, screenwriters Terrel Seltzer and Ellen Simon have concocted a brainy, madcap amusement with decidedly sympathetic characters. The certain proof -- you root for these two to get together.
The supporting characters are a terrific blend of sweet and sassy types. In particular, both kids, Mae Whitman and Alex D. Linz, are adorable, regular-type tots with no gloss of Hollywood sheen. On the adult side, Charles Durning is perfect as Jack's gruff, big-hearted editor, while sports scribe Pete Hamill is creatively cast as a spacey, perceptive land developer.
With his hand expertly on the narrative accelerator, director Michael Hoffman has fashioned a fast-paced, warm-hearted movie. With a frothy mix of wipes and split screens, as well as a keen eye for visual hilarity, Hoffman has cut a near-perfect crystalline comedy.
ONE FINE DAY
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
a Lynda Obst production
in association with Via Rosa Prods.
A Michael Hoffman film
Producer Lynda Obst
Director Michael Hoffman
Screenwriters Terrel Seltzer, Ellen Simon
Executive producers Kate Guinzburg,
Michelle Pfeiffer
Director of photography Oliver Stapleton
Production design David Gropman
Editor Garth Craven
Co-producer Mary McLaglen
Music James Newton Howard
Costume design Susie DeSanto
Casting Lora Kennedy
Special visual effects by VIFX
VIFX visual effects supervisor
Richard Hollander
Sound mixer Petur Hliddal
Color/stereo
Cast:
Melanie Parker Michelle Pfeiffer
Jack Taylor George Clooney
Maggie Taylor Mae Whitman
Sammy Parker Alex D. Linz
Lew Charles Durning
Yates Jr. Jon Roin Baitz
Elaine Lieberman Ellen Greene
Manny Feldstein Joe Frifasi
Frank Burroughs Pete Hamill
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 12/2/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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