Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS raised $220,000 Monday June 26 when the nonprofit group saluted playwright Neil Simon in a star-studded benefit evening.
"The Playwrights' the Thing II: Neil Simon at the Neil Simon," which took place at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway, was exactly as Simon himself described at the end of the evening: something like an audition. Walter Bobbie (Footloose and Chicago), the director shaped the evening's performances, culled together a series of excerpts from such plays as The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, Lost in Yonkers and Biloxi Blues and cast stars and celebrities in them.
This is not to say that there was no through-line to the evening. As the first excerpt very clearly intimated � in which Jennifer Ehle plays Nina, an actress from Odessa, who hilariously auditions in front of Chekhov himself in a scene from The Good Doctor -- the event was nothing more or less than an attempt by eager actors to perform the work of a playwright in front of an audience. Indeed, Ehle was quite effective as Nina. Vulnerable and shy, Ehle�s Nina evinced an effective passive-aggressive stance in which she used her beauty and warmth to endear herself to the unseen playwright/director but then manages to throw zinging one-liners and remarks that showed a very headstrong personality.
Curiously, Nathan Lane proved more immediately funny in God�s Favorite in which he played the Devil in the guise of Sidney Lipton to Mark Blum�s Joe Benjamin than in Laughter on the 23rd Floor where Lane�s Max Prince has to play off several actors to make the brief scene work.
Other standouts were Lynne Thigpen and Charles S. Dutton as the maid Clemma and her long lost lover Lewis in a superbly written scene from Proposals. This excerpts reminds us that not only is Simon a master of delineating the heartbreaking relationships between couples but that he is also brilliant in rendering realistic characters who are not white.
Rosemary Harris was simply sensational as Granda, opposite Julie Kavner�s Bella, in the heartrending mother and daughter scene from Lost in Yonkers. Harris used a cold, imperious Yiddish accent that was the quintessence of transformation. It reminded audiences how grossly underused she is as an actress in Waiting in the Wings, and it even made one wonder what she would have been like if she played the Jewish immigrant in Rose which recently starred Olympia Dukakis on Broadway.
Hank Azaria and Bronson Pinchot also got to show off their expertise with accents as the fiery Castillians in The Female Odd Couple in which Bebe Neuwirth played Florence and Jean Smart played Olive. The gender switch also added some homoerotic frisson when Azaria�s Manolo and Pinchot�s Jesus reveal that their neighbors have sometimes described them as gay men because they like to hang around their apartment in the buff.
Debra Monk and Tony Roberts performed Muriel Tate and Jesse Kiplinger in a scene from Plaza Suite -- thus giving the current Off-Broadway cast of Hotel Suite a serious run for their money.
Also quite funny was actor Mark Feuerstein, the TV star from Once and Again, who may be the first Jewish actor to play the role of Lucas, Neil Simon�s alter-ego in Laughter on the 23rd Floor -- a role usually played by Gentiles on Broadway and in regional theaters.
The only celebrity no-show in the evening was Robert Sean Leonard, who was supposed to play Eugene from Biloxi Blues and Leon from Fools. Leonard�s film schedule prevented him from participating, and Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie) took his place.
At the end of the evening, Neil Simon took the stage and issues a series of one-liners that constituted a speech in which he expressed his gratitude for the actors, the director and the cast. The playwright noted that the evening was for such a worthy and important cause, and he really appreciated the attempts by various actors to take on the various excerpts. He also quipped that he is so very happy to be back on Broadway (Simon�s last Broadway outing was the 1997 Proposals) and that, to celebrate the occasion, he may write a musical based on his that night�s speech.
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