arts & culture
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Walnut Street Theatre Honors
Neil Simon Through the Ages
A Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
20 JANUARY 5, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Neil Simon was a Jewish
playwright who debuted
his fi rst full-length play at
Philadelphia’s Walnut Street
Theatre. Jennifer Childs (director, center) with actors Scott Greer (Barney) and Susan Riley Stevens (Jeanette)
at a dress rehearsal of “Last of the Red Hot Lovers”
A Casebook.”
Blending self-deprecating digs with Yiddish words
that have now become ubiquitous in American
vernacular, Simon integrated Judaism so seamlessly
into his works that it became eff ortless to him.

In an interview with Jackson Breyer, Simon said
his Judaism was “so deeply embedded in me and
so inherent in me that I am unaware of its quality,”
according to a 2018 JTA article shortly following
Simon’s death.

Simon’s shows “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi
Blues” and “Broadway Bound” are semi-autobi-
ographical, featuring a Jewish protagonist, as many
of his shows do.

Though Simon’s legacy is in his ability to capture
humanity in its vulnerable states, the Walnut’s
productions of “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” had to
take into consideration its place in history and its
relevance today.

To do this, director Jennifer Childs, who is making
her directorial debut at the Walnut, said that protag-
onist Barney’s apartment fi lls the center of the
theater’s stage, but the set is also fl anked by two
other apartments to create the illusion of a cramped
New York studio apartment. Sound design for the
show created a soundscape to nestle Barney’s story
among the many others happening concurrently in
the city.

But besides tweaking some language around race
and directing acting choices to contextualize the
play’s misogynistic-at-times depiction of women,
Childs changed little of Simon’s vision.

According to Childs, Simon’s works have been
“mimicked by some, but it’s never fully or as well
done,” with other playwrights unable to fully emulate
Simon’s style of unrelenting wit and candor.

Following a challenging 2022 — and fi nancial
hardships many theaters, including the Walnut, have
endured — the appeal of “Last of the Red Hot
Lovers” lies in its universal message of refl ection and
gratitude. “There’s something about investing in what you
have that’s in front of you, as opposed to looking for
something outside yourself all the time,” Childs said.

For more information about the show, visit
walnut street theatre.org/season/show/last- of-
the-red-hot-lovers-2022. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of the Walnut Street Theatre
t the end of the Walnut Street Theatre’s 1961
season, 34-year-old Neil Simon debuted
his fi rst full-length play, “Come Blow Your
Horn,” a comedy that would go on to run for 678
performances on Broadway later that year.

The Center City theater that helped launch the
Jewish playwright’s career is spotlighting his work
once more with its production of “Last of the Red Hot
Lovers,” running from Jan. 10 to Feb. 5.

Written in 1969, “Last of the Red Hot Lovers”
combines Simon’s deprecating and witty humor with
his cogent observations about the human condition
to tell the story of a nebbish Barney Cashman, deep
in his midlife crisis, in his quest to become part of the
sexual revolution of the time by committing adultery.

The play takes place in his New York City apart-
ment, where three women he tries to court fi lter in
(and mostly out) of his apartment.

Though over 50 years old, Walnut Street Theatre
didn’t have to do much to breathe new life into the
show — the charm of which comes from fi nding
comedy in crisis, according to President and
Producing Artistic Director Bernard Havard.

“Simon manages to fi nd laughter in adversity,
which I’ve always found to be reassuring about his
work,” Havard said. “He takes dire circumstances
and turns them into grips of laughter.”
Havard knows fi rsthand about Simon’s writing
prowess. He and his wife met Simon and his producer
Emanuel Azenberg in Philadelphia after Havard read
Simon’s farce “Plaza Suite.” The party discussed the
production of “Come Blow Your Horn,” which Simon
wanted to eventually take to Broadway, despite
Azenberg’s reservations, Havard recounts.

“He felt that he put it in good hands with me
and the Walnut, and we had big success with it,”
Havard said.

Simon seemed to agree. In a Dec. 11, 1994 letter to
Havard, Simon wrote, “The memories of that experi-
ence, as wonderful as it was, was also fi elded with
terror for me. If we failed there, we would not have
gone on to New York and me to a lifetime of writing
plays.” Beyond Simon’s connection to Philadelphia is his
homage to his Jewish roots, refl ected in his layered
characters and zinging sense of humor.

“Humor has often been used by Jewish comedi-
ans and writers as a defense against anti-Semitism
and exclusion, and Simon is no exception,” Gary
Konas writes in the introduction of “Neil Simon: