Theatre Review: Laughter on the 23rd Floor

The Darien Players’ presentation of Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor is a delight.

I had never been to a play at the Darien Arts Center, and my expectations were not high. I imagined a bunch of amateurs cavorting on an auditorium stage, like the main stage in Town Hall. If you have ever read Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road (now a movie, but you should read the book), which begins with the couple stressed because the wife has just humiliated herself onstage in a local theater production, then you can imagine the sort of horror-show I was expecting.

Was I ever wrong!

If you drive around to the back of Town Hall and walk in through the elegantly lit Darien Arts Center entrance, you will find a “black box” theater that is, if anything, professional. While intimate (there are no bad seats), the theater is not the slightest bit cramped. The seats are comfortable. And, as you look around at the lights and the set, you realize that you are in for an evening of real theater.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor, which Simon wrote in 1993, is, according to Director Dan Friedman, a sort of homage to the comedy writers of television shows like Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows. In program notes, Friedman tells us that Caesar’s show was an “ancestor” of many of our favorite TV shows, movies and plays; the writers went on to work for classics like All in the Family, The Dick Van Dyke Show, M*A*S*H, Young Frankenstein, The Carol Burnett Show, Annie Hall, and the list goes on.

If you like Neil Simon, you will love this play. It takes place in the 1950s. We're peering into the working room of a group of  talented TV show comedy writers. It reminded me of The Dick Van Dyke Show, which is also about writers working together. Only this is a larger, more eccentric group. And, as comedy writers, practically everything the characters say is a pun or a gibe or a humorous reference. They are always on, and the humor comes quickly.

At one point Max Prince, the Sid Caesar-type character, is trying to rally his troops against the enemy, NBC. He thinks they should walk out to protest cuts in show time and budget. Meanwhile, he is the boss and has the power to fire anyone at any time. He says something like “Are we together on this? Because if someone here doesn’t want to quit, he can leave!”

Ba dum dum!

I have to say that the acting was excellent, and comedy is difficult to do. The actors have to range from slapstick (characters with hypochondria, characters with smoker’s cough, characters who punch holes in walls), to verbal gymnastics. They do it all well.

The set and the lights and the costumes are also terrific.

As a regular person in an economic crisis, I have long since abandoned any effort to see a play in New York. They are ridiculously expensive and often overproduced (helicopters coming down from the sky do not necessarily make good theater). You sit in your cheap seats in the back and feel ripped off. Then you pay your $30 parking bill and schlep back home.

Who knew that you could see a quality production for $20 right here in Darien?

Which makes me wonder who really does know. The theater was very full on opening night, Oct. 30, but there were a few seats left. The audience was mostly older people—people wise enough to have discovered this local gem. It’s like an off-off-Broadway production, with all the intimacy of a small theater, but much better; and at such a reasonable ticket price.

If you decide to see Laughter on the 23rd Floor (and you should), be prepared to hear the F-word plenty of times. It’s probably not the best show for kids, mainly because of this. The show lasts about two and a half hours, including a fifteen minute intermission.

Performances are Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6—7 and 13—14 at 8 p.m., and at 2 p.m. on Nov. 8. Tickets are priced at $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. For more information visit the DAC Web site, or call 203-655 5414.