Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Play review - "Prisoner of Second Avenue" by Neil Simon (1971) (audio play)

 Different Simon work - it's really an extended rant by a man having a nervous breakdown, which is very well done. The wife character doesn't do much other than pop up feeder lines.

This is part of that sub genre of stories around this time about boomer parents who lost theirjobs after twenty years of boom conditions - The Great American Tragedy a George Kennedy TV movie was about the same topic.

The "plot" is about the man's family (siblings) discussing how to help him - they offer him some money and eventually he says no.

Maybe we should have seen the never-seen daughters who are in college. Maybe the guy should have gone back to work earlier - he has a touchy pride, whines about the wife going back to work, etc. It does limit sympathy. But some of it remains powerful.

Richard Dreyfuss starred in this version - I kept thinking the voice of his brother was super familiar; it's Dreyfus' real life brother.

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