Sunday, December 5, 2010

Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon


Characters:
Corie Bratter
Recently married to Paul, still trying to figure out married life together
Paul Bratter
Recently married to Corie, breadwinner, doesn’t really like the apartment or Velasco or Corie’s mother, rising young attorney
Mrs. Banks
Corie’s mother who likes the apartment, living vicariously through Corie,
Victor Velasco
Crazy upstairs neighbor that lives in the attic and the only way to get there is by climbing out the window
Telephone Repair
Man
Struggles to get up all the steps of the apartment building to Corie & Paul’s room
Delivery Man
Struggles to get up all the steps of the apartment building to Corie & Paul’s room

Time:
Present
Setting:
NY
Mode:
Comedy
Form:
Modernism

Themes:
-      Modern: fix it fast, divorce, impressionism, capturing what you see
-      Americana: newlywed, rising young attorney, making life work, character driven, youth escaping, finding belonging






Plot:
Corie and Pail move to the very, very, very top floor of an apartment building without an elevator. Velasco, the neighbor in the attic invites them over for a wild, intoxicating evening.

Quotes:
Mother
I feel like we’ve died and gone to heaven… Only we had to climb up
Paul
And I loved you, Corie, even when I didn’t like you, I loved you
Corie
There are watchers in this world and there are doers. And the watchers sit around watching the doers do. Well, tonight you watched and I did.
Velasco (talking for Mother)
The trip to Staten Island, the strange food, the drinks, being carried up to my apartment like that and you didn’t say one word about it
Paul
If our marriage hinges on breathing fish balls and poofla poo pies, its not worth saving… I am now going to crawl into our tiny, little single bed. If you care to join me, we will be sleeping from left to right tonight

Notes:
Very funny and very easy to read.

Velasco is similar to the neighbor in Home Improvement

Newlyweds trying to figure out married life tighter

Mother parallel Velasco in opposites

Velasco disrupts the norm

Playwright:

Born:
1927
Died:

Year Written:
1963

Bio:
Author of over forty Broadway plays since 1961, humorous, lighthearted plays of the 1960s, darker, more autobiographical works in 1970s and 1980s, hit musical comedies, family based NY settings

Neil Simon’s bio reads like the quintessential American success story. Born in the Bronx on the fourth of July in 1927, he grew up with his second-generation Jewish immigrant working-class family in Washington Heights. After brief stints in college and the army, he began work in the Warner Brother’s mailroom. At this time he also began working on comedy sketches with his brother. Soon he was creating revues for the stage, and both brothers began writing for television. Simon’s first p lay Come Blow Your Horn was written as a relief from the grind of television writing and was a huge success in 1961, beginning a tradition. Rarely has there been a Broadway season where Simon’s name has not appeared on a playbill. After a series of less successful plays in the late 70s, Simon revitalized his career and reputation with his autobiographical trilogy of Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1985) and Broadway Bound (1986).

Military service: U.S. Army Air Forces, sports editor for Rev-Meter, 1945-46

Married: Joan Baim: 1953 (died, 1973), Marsha Mason: 1973 (divorced, 1982)
, Diane Lander: 1987 (divorced, 1988)
, Diane Lander: 1990 (divorced, 1998)
, Elaine Joyce 1999 



Other Work:
1961
Come Blow Your Horn
1962
Little Me
1963
Come Blow Your Horn- screenplay
1965
The Odd Couple
1966
Sweet Charity
1966
The Star Spangled Girl
1966
After the Fox- screenplay
1967
Barefoot in the Park- screenplay
1968
Plaza Suite
1968
Promises, Promises
1968
The Odd Couple- screenplay
1969
The Last of the Red Hot Lovers
1969
Sweet Charity- screenplay
1970
The Gingerbread Lady
1970
The Out-of-Towners- screenplay
1971
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
1971
Plaza Suite- screenplay
1972
The Sunshine Boys
1972
The Last of the Red Hot Lovers- screenplay
1972
The Heartbreak Kid-screenplay
1973
The Good Doctor
1974
God’s Favorite
1975
The Prisoner of Second Avenue- screenplay
1975
The Sunshine Boys- screenplay
1976
California Suite
1976
Murder by Death- screenplay
1977
Chapter Two
1977
The Goodbye Girl- screenplay
1978
The Cheap Detective- screenplay
1978
California Suite- screenplay
1978
The Good Doctor- screenplay
1979
They’re Playing Our Song
1979
Chapter Two- screenplay
1980
I Ought to Be in Pictures
1980
Seems Like Old Times- screenplay
1981
Fools
1981
Only When I laugh- screenplay
1982
I Ought to Be in Pictures- screenplay
1983
Brighton Beach Memoirs
1983
Max Dugan Returns- screenplay
1984
The Lonely Guy- screenplay
1985
Biloxi Blues
1985
The Slugger’s Wife- screenplay
1986
The Female Odd Couple
1986
Brighton Bean Memoirs- screenplay
1986
Broadway Bound
1987
Plaza Suite- screenplay
1988
Rumors
1988
Biloxi Blues- screenplay
1991
Lost in Yonkers
1991
The Marrying Man- screenplay
1992
Jake’s Women
1993
The Goodbye Girl
1993
Lost in Yonkers- screenplay
1993
Laughter on the 23rd Floor
1995
London Suite
1995
The Sunshine Boys- screenplay
1996
Jake’s Women- screenplay
1997
Proposals
1998
The Odd Couple II- screenplay
2000
The Dinner Party
2001
45 Seconds from Broadway
2001
Laughter on the 23rd Floor- screenplay
2003
Rose’s Dilemma
2004
Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple
2004
The Goodbye Girl- screenplay


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