Neil Simon
Lost in Yonkers is a play by Neil Simon and one of the notable works in a career that also earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Simon was born on July 4, 1927, in New York City, and he died in Manhattan on August 26, 2018. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School before studying at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the University of Denver. His working life extended across several related forms: he worked as a playwright, screenwriter, librettist, lyricist, and film producer, producing work in English throughout. His earliest notable play, Come Blow Your Horn, marked the beginning of a body of work that would grow to span both stage and screen.
The range of his output across those forms is considerable. The Odd Couple is among his most recognized plays, while Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues represent further notable works for the stage. He also worked as a screenwriter, with The Goodbye Girl among the productions that bear his name in that capacity, and he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay during his career. As a librettist and lyricist he contributed to the musical theater as well, and his role as a film producer extended his involvement in the work beyond the page.
The honors that gathered around his career reflect the breadth of that record. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama stands alongside the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor among the formal recognitions he received. Simon, a citizen of the United States who lived and died in New York City, continued adding to a body of work that included Lost in Yonkers among its notable titles.
Quotes by Neil Simon
Neil Simon's insights on:
You’re a witness. You’re always standing around watching what’s happening, scribbling in your book what other people do. You have to get in the middle of it. You have to take sides. Make a contribution to the fight. Any fight. The one you believe in. Until you do, you’ll never be a writer, Eugene.
Evan Handler’s new book is simply wonderful. He pulls you inside his life, and you come out his very close friend.
Oh, well this month we’re sold out. Completely. You could go all over town, you won’t find a ticket to the show... Unless you go to the box office. He’s got racks of seats.
Don’t listen to those who say, you are taking too big a chance. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don’t listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head...
But you’ll see producers and theatre owners with a billion dollars worth of theaters come in here for lunch and you know why? Because it’s cheap. You see those pictures on the wall? All young actors and actresses who you will never hear about in your life... And when ’dis place is gone, the entire Broadway will slide into the East River.
I don’t want to restrict the life of a play to a particular production. The original actors might leave after the first six months, and I want the play to last 30 or 40 years. You write for the character, not the actor on the stage.