| The Sunshine Boys | |
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Original Broadway poster |
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| Written by | Neil Simon |
| Date premiered | December 18, 1972 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Comedy |
| IBDB profile | |
The Sunshine Boys is a play by Neil Simon that was produced on Broadway in 1972 and later adapted for film and television.
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The play focuses on aging Al Lewis and Willy Clark, a one-time vaudevillian team 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. The stubborn Clark, who was not ready for retirement, resented the wiser Lewis for breaking up the act when he opted to leave show business. It is now 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. Clark is convinced by his nephew Ben to revive one of the old routines one last time. Much of the humor is derived from efforts to get the two cantankerous actors into the same room for a rehearsal, their differences of opinion once they reunite, and their shenanigans on the actual broadcast.
Neil Simon was inspired by two venerable vaudeville teams. The longevity of "Lewis and Clark" was inspired by Smith and Dale who, unlike their theatrical counterparts, were inseparable lifelong friends. The undercurrent of backstage hostility between "Lewis and Clark" was inspired by the team of Gallagher and Shean, who were successful professionally but argumentative personally. Alternate sources say this is based on Weber and Fields.
After two previews, the original Broadway production, produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed by Alan Arkin, opened on December 18, 1972 at the Broadhurst Theatre. It transferred to the Shubert and then the Lunt-Fontanne before completing its 538-performance run. The original cast included Sam Levene as Lewis, Jack Albertson as Clark, and Lewis J. Stadlen as Ben. Replacements later in the run included Lou Jacobi as Lewis and Jack Gilford as Clark. Tony Award nominations went to Simon (Best Play), Albertson (Best Actor in a Play) and Arkin (Best Direction of a Play), and Albertson won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.
The 1975 film adaptation cast George Burns as Lewis and Walter Matthau as Clark.
In 1995, Simon adapted his play yet again for a Hallmark Entertainment production that finally aired on December 28, 1997. His teleplay updated the setting and made the two comedians the product of the early days of television, the medium in which the playwright got his start. Unlike the film adaptation, although they are portrayed as cankerous, their animosity was not as severe as Mattheu's and Burns' characters' bad relationship. Directed by John Erman, it starred Woody Allen as Lewis and Peter Falk as Clark, with Michael McKean, Liev Schreiber, Edie Falco, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Whoopi Goldberg in supporting roles.
There have been three German television versions of The Sunshine Boys, all entitled Sonny Boys. The 1982 adaptation starred Carl-Heinz Schroth and Johannes Heesters, the 1995 version featured Harald Juhnke and Wolfgang Spier, and Werner Schneyder and Dieter Hildebrandt appeared in the 2001 edition.
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