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A look at Neil Simon as two of his plays hit Broadway

Quick ReadAudiences identify with Neil Simon's characters, which helps explain his two revivals

Laurie Metcalf and Dennis Boutsikaris in Neil Simon's

Photo credit: Photo by Ari Mintz | Laurie Metcalf and Dennis Boutsikaris in Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" at the Nederlander Theatre, W. 41 St., NYC.

Linda Winer

Newsday theater critic and arts columnist Linda Winer. Linda Winer

Winer is chief theater critic and arts columnist for Newsday,

bio

I interviewed Neil Simon once. It was 1977, at the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel, where vaguely recognizable TV people were taking phone calls at their tables and pausing at the mild-looking man with laugh-lines under his glasses to squeal, "Darling, it was fabulous, absolutely fabulous."

It was surreal to meet Simon - quintessential New Yorker and the last of Broadway's red-hot commercial...

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