Neil Simon’s Famous Comedy is on Display

Celebrating Middle America

Neil Simon is one of the most prolific play/screen writers of the 20th Century. His comedies celebrate the traditional values of mid-Century middle America, although he was married five times. They are filled with rapid fire jokes and wisecracks. He cut his teeth writing for 1950s TV comedy shows like Your Show of Shows and The Phil Silvers Show with Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and others, and the sensibilities of those shows have translated into his later work. 

Barefoot in the Park, a romantic comedy, was his second Broadway production in 1963, having had success with his first, Come Blow Your Horn in 1961 . It takes place in a 5th floor (six if you count the stoop) walkup brownstone in Manhattan just rented by newlyweds, Corrie (Renee Landrigan) and Paul (Zak Ward). The climb up the stairs is a running joke throughout the play, and while hilarious the first few times, wears a bit thin eventually. The telephone repairman is the first to experience the stairs, and Ray Boucher is very funny and worldly wise in that small, but significant role.

a Dinner for the Ages

Corrie is a major people-pleaser and is frantic a good deal of the time, e.g., terrified about her mother visiting and whether Paul will like the apartment. Because of this, she sets up awkward situations that the others suffer through. Paul is a new lawyer in a large firm and has all the worries that accompany the new man on the job. Her desire for continuing their honeymoon in the new apartment and his need to work from home for the evening sets up the first clash between them. When her mother (Christina Rausa) arrives unexpectedly, Corrie becomes even more frantic. The final character is Victor Velasco (David Lundy), the eccentric foreign gentleman in the attic apartment (Breakfast At Tiffany’s anyone?). Corrie sets up a dinner that includes her mother and Victor, which results in a disaster that then leads to a huge fight between the newlyweds.

The cast does very well with these characters, who are firmly rooted in the 50s and early 60s, before people began to break out of the postwar mold of middle class women staying home and men going off to the office, returning to a wife who has a martini ready and is dressed to the nines. Kari Drozd designed a very 1960s pink dress and coat for Corrie, complete with pearls, that is perfect for that role.

Simon came from a difficult family background, and most of his plays are semi-autobiographical. Often his characters exhibit some of the traits that he struggled with as a child. For instance, he reported that his mother would tell his father she hated him in fits of anger. He would leave, but would return and she would take him back. This scenario is replayed in Barefoot in the Park, as the pouting and histrionic Corrie flies into a tantrum when she is met with resistance. The pain behind her acting out is not addressed directly, but it is as if she recognizes that she has done everything that has been asked of her as a dutiful wife and yet still does not get her way. She longs to break out of the mold and tries to do so, but the consequences are dire, so she retreats back into that safe place of being the devoted wife.

All of that said, it is a romantic comedy, and some of the comedy works very well. The actors have excellent timing, so there is no drag in the show. The relationship that develops between Victor and Ethel, who was known only as Mom well into the third act, is quite charming and both actors handle it well. They each are aware of who they really are and accept themselves without question, which the young Corrie has yet to learn. Renee Landrigan is bouncy, bright, and throws a mean tantrum. Zak Ward stays right with her in that department, and the fights between them are at times quite funny while at the same time very painful.

It’s Always Funny Looking into the Past

Brian Cavanagh directed with a sure hand. The black box theater is reconfigured into a traditional stage with the audience in front. The entire set is the kitchen/living room of the small apartment, designed by Chris Cavanagh. Some pop music hums along at times, courtesy of Tom Makar.

Barefoot in the Park is an early Simon play that is of its time, just before the cultural upheavals of the 60s and 70s that would transform relationships between couples as people began to question the status quo. As such, it is a funny and light-hearted look into the past, which the matinee audience was enjoying immensely.