Comparable to his later success, Biloxi Blues and Lost in Yonkers, California Suite is a set of four playlets set in one hotel room. They feature A- A divorced couple meeting to decide on their daughter's future

B- A man with a hooker in his room tries to hide her when his wife comes

C- A neurotic actress and her homosexual husband come to town for the Oscars

D- Four friends really get to know what it's liked going on vacation together.

The first and third are the best, because they combine wit and emotion. The other two are hilarious, but somewhat hollow. Overall, it is worth reading, and certainly ranks as one of Simons best in the past 25 years.

I believe that California Suite is one of the funniest plays that i have ever read. I am fairly new to Neil Simon, but I have enjoyed everything that I have read from him so far.

I feel that Laughter on the 23rd Floor is funny but the jokes are probably too American. One of the biggest flaws of the play is that the characters are stereotyped. They lack depth and therefore, the audience don't really feel for or associate with them.

It was de besta times, it was de woista times. It was T.V.'s golden age. It was T.V.'s greatest shame. It was de oily '50s and a roomful of writers was puttin' togedda a weekly T.V. show dere. Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor takes us inside the crazy angry frightening competitive creative wonderful writer's room of an early '50s T.V. comedy variety show. The cast, faced with dropping ratings and red baiting try desperately to keep their jobs and maintain the show's high standards in the only way they know how -- by wisecracking their ways through the crisis. Max Shields, the star of the show, is a thinly disguised Sid Caesar, for whom Simon wrote in the 50s. In Laughter we follow Max's disintegration from exhaustion and alcohol as he tries to cope with interfering network executives who continually cut his budget, shorten his show and try to force him to "dumb down" the content. Under the constant belly laughs delivered by Max and his writers, exists a classicly tragic character whose fatal flaw is his loyalty to the crew of writers that make him look good. Simon uses the ensemble cast to revisit a time when people lived in fear. Each writer makes his or own personal journey in the confines and context of daily writing slams. Milt, the king of the one-line put down, who wears cowboy boots to Christmas parties and outrageous suits to work because he fears he's not as good as anyone else in the room. Stressing quantity over quality as his strength, Milt explains, "When Max laughs, my kids eat." Carol, the only woman on the staff, is 8 months pregnant. Yet, she explains that she has no desire to be known as a woman writer -- she wants to be known as a good writer -- even if she has to be one of the guys to do it. Each character in this Simon masterwork is lovingly drawn and viciously parodied. And it is each character's ability to survive the angst of the red-baiting, money-driven, creativity stifling era that makes Laughter on the 23rd Floor a must read.

At first, I was looking forward to reading about the enduring and fascinating career of Neil Simon by Simon himself. But then some of the reviews I read professed it a dull read. Friends told me not to waste my time. I suppose the moral of that is if you're interested at first, don't let anyone dissuade you from reading a book. For I found this to be a very good read, both moving and highly entertaining. It spoke to me not only as a writer, but as a husband and father as well. The information concerning the torturous development of his early plays was a glimpse into the process and filled with hilarious anecdotes. Though he does tend to put his first wife, Joan, up on a pedestal, frankly his recreation of their courting and marriage makes her place in his memory understandable. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. "Rewrites" is a fine read, worthy of it's author's already indelible reputation. - Ron Fassler

I received this book as a Christmas gift in 1996. While my husband thought a book was a bizarre gift, I knew better. I knew that as long as the words flowed from Neil Simon's pen, I was in for a treat. I read the book all too quickly. I should have paced myself so as to savor the richness, but I am powerless in the capable hands of Neil Simon. I'd always had a nagging suspicion that his plays were so real, even the ones not labeled semi-autobiographical. Through Rewrites I came to know for a fact that Simon's material is so moving because it borrows bits and pieces from his own life. I wept, I laughed, and I learned. I anxiously await the next installment from this American treasure.

This book is more than the interesting story of the first part of Neil Simon's life. It's also a very practical guide to being a playwright. Simon discusses creating his first success, "Come Blow Your Horn." He had eighteen rewrites before he showed it to anybody but his wife! He also discusses the lucky breaks he got when the play first opened. But the real meat of the book for the working playwright is the play writing tips he sprinkles throughout the book. "If somebody leaves the room, where does he go?" "Character is the foundation of the play." "An audience won't believe what you don't believe." "We need to see a character change, not just know that he's changed." "Adversaries need to be equal." Be alert as you read--Simon usually drops these gems in a discussion of problems he had working on a specific script. Face it, if you pay attention, there's a lot you can learn from the most successful playwright since Shakespeare.

When I first was told of "Fools," I didn't know what to expect. I was skeptical of the plot, but was happily surprised. The play's witty humor makes me enjoy Simon's work even more. If you are sarcastic or just like to laugh, this play is for you.

At first I was skeptical of how I would like this play. You see, our high school is putting this on as their Fall Play. "Fools" will make you "tremble-tremble" with laughter! You'll want to read it by the "light of the drapes". It takes place in the Ukraine when it was still part of Russia in about the 1890's. Every person who was born in the village of Kulyenkitkov (ok, i spelt it wrong, so sue me)is very stupid, not knowing love or the thinking process. In this town you meet many wonderful characters including The Masgetrate who will live to be 80, though he's 79 right now, Yenchna the vendor who milks her cow upside down to get more cream, Slovitch the Butcher who is really quite stupid anyway, Something Something Snetsky who can't remember his own name, Mishkin the Postmaster who gives away people's mail to other people for enjoyment, Count Gregor Yousekevitch who makes the whole town tremble-tremble with fear, Dr. Nickolai Zubritsky who marks his book pages with maple syrup, Mrs. Lenya Zubritsky who set the drapes on fire because she couldn't find her candle, Sophia Zubritsky who is 19 and just recently learned to sit, and finally the new school master, Leon Tolchinsky who has come to break the curse Kulyenkitkov (sorry again, i spelt it wrong!!) How does he brake the (what do you call it? It sounds like nurse or maybe Hearse... OH!) curse? You'll just have to be a sport and read the play yourself...and remember, if you stay in the village long enough, you too will become a FOOL!

This is by far the best Neil Simon play ever.
It tells a funny story of a small town under a fake curse. This has it all love, humor and even serious moments. I highly recommend that you read this.

My School is doing this for their play. After reading, I found that Neil SImon's Plaza Suite went nowhere, and at the end it left me gasping for some breathing air.

I directed this play for my high school and I love it. It's classic Neil Simon. His characters in this play are so real and histercaly funny because they are just normal human beings.

Plaza Suite, in neil simon style, combines real life messages and upbeat comedy. All three acts show a peak to life and Neil Simon's genius in bringing the characters to life. I was Muriel when I performed in it. I do have a bias, but I have also studied the script in great detail. I am directing Act 2 this year and I chose it for it's heart and comedy. Plaza suite is interesting, funny, and bound to leave you with a good feeling. Even though you see the characters in one setting, you explore many different parts of their lives. The play is character driven, in neil simon fashion and I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a mixture of real-life and comedy. Other Neil Simon play's I recommend are: The Good Doctor, Rumors, London Suite, Sunshine Boys, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and of course Biloxi Blues.

Chapter Two was a well formulated play. It was light, easy, enjoyable reading. The story follows two people (George and Jennie) who have both loved and lost. George's wife has died and Jennie and her husband divorced. The two meet in a comical scene when George calls the wrong number. From then on the play takes a more serious turn as the characters get a second chance at love. All in all, a feel good story about starting over.

While many people have brushed this Neil Simon aside, it is actually quite interesting. Some critics believe that mixing humor into a serious play doesn't flow right. However, the contrast of the often funny-yet-sad situations portrayed in The Gingerbread Lady are precisely what bring the play to life. I recommend it to anyone who appreciates Neil Simon's touching sense of humor!

A good introduction to the relationship of a screenplay to the actual images that end up on screen. Martha Coolidge is the director of the film [not the designer] and Ray Stark is the producer.

I was anxious to see the arrival of "The Play Goes On" as I had really enjoyed "Rewrites", but felt as though Simon had more to say, but hadn't been able to get to it in the first of this biographical series. However, this latest lacked the humor of "Rewrites" and I felt myself without much incentive to keep turning pages other than to get some insights to some of his lesser-known works.

"Rewrites" was better than this effort because Neil Simon shared more insights into his creative process than this volume. In "The Play Goes On," he concentrates on whining over the breakup of his serial marriages -- while asking us to believe that nobody was ever responsible for his string of divorces. His explanation? That there's some kind of genetic marker that determines how long people stay married. PLEASE!

Simon also spends a good deal of time asking us to believe other whoppers; that his plays are not all autobiographical (I guess this is true... most -- but not all -- of his plays are that way); and that he has no memory of writing most of his plays, that they just came out of him in some kind of auto-pilot-like trance.

Anyone wanting to learn about Simon and his creative process is better off studying his plays.

Neil Simon is best studied by reading and seeing interpretations of his plays, but since this book is an autobiography, it is interesting at the very least for seeing what the man's own perspective on his life has been. There are definitely some moments that appear repetitive and unnecessary, but as he says in the book, Mr. Simon was not keeping notes throughout his life with the knowledge that he would someday write a book. That means he and we are forced to rely on his memories and notions when they occur to him, which is why some of the book is out of sequence. I would have loved to have seen more insights into the plays and screenplays themselves, especially since he completely neglects to mention "Laughter On The 23rd Floor", which I saw twice on Broadway and laughed harder the second time than the first. He alludes to it once, but never says anything regarding the production even though he spends at least a few pages on some of his less-successful works. However, it's those exact pages on the lesser known stuff like "The Good Doctor", "Rumors", and "Jake's Women" that are so interesting.

Generally, I find it difficult to read biographies of people who are still with us, for the simple fact that that story can never be complete. One of the good things about the first volume of autobiography, Rewrites, was that it ended at a specific point in time with the death of Mr. Simon's first wife which represented the "end" of a chapter in his life and therefore lent itself to being presented as a complete story. I was impressed at how up to date The Play Goes On was, but how can even this be the definitive story of Neil Simon and his work unless he retires? Surely (and hopefully) Neil Simon has many more years and several plays ahead of him, so maybe he's just leaving open the option of doing a third book.

I had to do an assignment in my stagecraft class and my teacher said read this you will probably like this. Usually i hate to read but this book was great. I started to read and i couln't even put it down. The book is down to earth but just helorous. I would recommende this book to who ever.
Thanks very much