Chagrin Valley Little Theatre

The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon

Performance Dates & Tickets

About the Play

Clark: “I invented comedy!”
Lewis: “The same night you designed the Titanic.”

Directed by Kate Tonti

Starring Don Edelman and Frank Mularo
with Steve Kay, Amber Slane, Jackie Cassara, Jenny Barrett, Chris White and Bob Fortlage

In Neil Simon's award-winning comedy, Al Lewis and Willy Clark are an aging former comedic duo from the vaudeville era. They made the audiences laugh like no one else in their heyday, but off-stage they couldn't stand each other. Their partnership ended when the act finished, and they haven't spoken in over 20 years. When Ben, Clark's nephew, recruits the duo to revive their act for a televised special, he discovers that convincing the crotchety old comedians to put aside their differences is a hilarous challenge!

The Sunshine Boys is generously sponsored by

About the Playwright

Neil Simon's plays, nearly all of them popular with audiences, if not always with critics, are comedies treating recognizable aspects of modern middle-class life. Simon spent his early years in television, pioneering the situation comedy and writing jokes for some of the medium's most successful comedians. His string of Broadway plays began with Come Blow Your Horn (1961). Particularly adept at portraying the middle-aged, Simon is a master jokesmith who builds up his characters through funny lines rather than plot, although he does often attempt serious themes. The Gingerbread Lady (1970), for example, deals honestly with alcoholism, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Lost in Yonkers (1991) treats the anguish of parental rejection. His other plays, many of which are semiautobiographical, include Barefoot in the Park (1963), The Odd Couple (1965), Plaza Suite (1968), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971), The Sunshine Boys (1972), The Good Doctor (1973), God's Favorite (1974), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1984), Broadway Bound (1986), Laughter on the 23d Floor (1993), and 45 Seconds from Broadway (2001). Many of his plays have been adapted into films, and Simon has written more than 20 screenplays.