Word: simonizers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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BILOXI BLUES. Neil Simon's wartime cliches are smartly polished by Director Mike Nichols and sharply worn by Matthew Broderick (as a wise-guy G.I.) and Christopher Walken (his tough sarge...
...theatrical comedy goes, Neil Simon's Fools is pretty lame stuff. Why would anyone aspire to write a play such as this unconscionably trite piece of drivel? And why would anyone choose it for performance before a Harvard audience? Our campus has simply not been so blessed with performances of really worthwhile theater that anyone should be looking to put on self-consciously third-rate works, however well executed...
...Simon, of course, is an acclaimed playwright, but after watching Fools, it is difficult to imagine why. The play's faults are as profound as they come: the author has made little effort to say anything relevant, let alone meaningful, to any audience other than perhaps children. As a result, the humor--and Simon does have a undeniable knack for one-liners--is entirely superficial and makes you feel sheepish for actually laughing...
Then again, Simon's ludicrous script leaves Parikh in a rather uncomfortable bind. As the passionately intellectual schoolmaster, he comes to town in order to educate the incorrigibly dimwitted Sophia. Despite his consuming interest in higher math and philosophy, Parikh must somehow be convincing in falling in love with...
...inane, it is. There are a few unexpected turns in the plot, and a handful of genuinely funny interchanges, but by and large it is difficult to imagine a less ambitious comedy than this one. In the conclusion, as if aware that what has gone before is essentially meaningless, Simon glibly trots out those eternal verities that You Are How You Perceive Yourself, and Love Conquers...