The Sunshine Boys premiered on Broadway in 1972 and was later adapted for film and television. The play is about two aging vaudevillian comedians known as “Lewis and Clark” who, over the course of forty-odd years, not only grew to hate each other but never spoke to each other off-stage throughout the final year of their act. It is 1972 and CBS is inviting the team to reunite for a special on the history of comedy, with the pair representing the vaudeville era at its best. Hilarity ensures and shenanigans reign as these two cantankerous old men reunite for the broadcast.
Acclaimed actor and director Richard Benjamin came to national fame in 1964 when Mike Nichols cast him in the lead role for the national company of Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park. His association with Simon continued. He starred in the national company The Odd Couple and made his Broadway debut in Simon’s The Star Spangled Girl. Mr. Benjamin’s other Broadway credits include The Little Black Book and The Norman Conquests. Mr. Benjamin’s auspicious film debut came in 1969, starring opposite Ali MacGraw in Goodbye, Columbus. He went on to appear in more than twenty feature films, including Catch-22, Diary of a Mad Housewife, The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, The Steagle, Portnoy’s Complaint, House Calls, and Love at First Bite. He was honored in 1975 with the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in The Sunshine Boys. As a director, Mr. Benjamin’s credits include My Favorite Year, a film that brought Peter O’Toole an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, as well as Racing With The Moon with Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage, City Heat with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, The Money Pit with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, Little Nikita with Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix, My Stepmother is an Alien with Dan Aykroyd and Kim Basinger, Downtown with Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker, Mermaids with Cher, Winona Ryder and Bob Hoskins, Made in America with Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, Milk Money starring Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris, and Mrs.Winterbourne with Shirley MacLaine, Ricki Lake and Brendan Fraser. He most recently starred with George Segal at the Geffen Playhouse in the American premiere of Heroes, adapted and translated by Tom Stoppard.
Veteran actor of stage and screen, Tony Roberts is best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen. In Annie Hall, he portrayed Alvy Singer’s best friend Rob. Other Allen films and/or plays in which he has appeared include both the Broadway and film versions of Play It Again, Sam, Radio Days, Stardust Memories, Hannah and Her Sisters, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy and Woody Allen’s segment for The Concert for New York City. Roberts also appeared in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Serpico and Just Tell Me What You Want. His Broadwaycredits include Barefoot in the Park; How Now, Dow Jones; Murder at the Howard Johnson’s; Promises, Promises;Sugar (the musical version of the movie Some Like It Hot); The Sisters Rosensweig; They’re Playing Our Song;Victor/Victoria; The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife; and Cabaret. In May 2007, Roberts returned to Broadway in the roller-disco rock musical Xanadu. On television he has appeared on The Carol Burnett Show, Matlock, and Law & Order. On radio he was a regular performer on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
