TNT Opens Season With Simon’s ‘Laughter’ | News, Sports, Jobs

“Your shows of shows” starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca was a popular and influential variety show in the early days of television, but its writers’ room had an even greater impact on the future of comedy.

The show’s writing team included Carl Reiner, who created “The Dick Van Dyke Show” who influenced countless family and work-based sitcoms that followed; Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, arguably the two most influential comedy directors of the 1970s; and an aspiring young playwright named Neil Simon, probably the most produced playwright of the last 60 years.

Simon drew on his experience in that writers’ room to “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” which opens Friday at the Trumbull New Theatre.

Brett Bunker is too young to have watched “Your show among shows” in the 1950s, but he has been a fan of the play since he read it more than 20 years ago.

“I was an assistant director on a show my sophomore year in college, another Neil Simon show, ‘Rumors,’ and I got a collection of his plays from a friend at the time after I directed that show.” Bunker said. “I read two plays from this collection, including this one, Laughter on the 23rd Floor. I loved the interactions between the characters and the concept of family that surrounds them. It was amazing to see the connections between the characters and how much they truly cared for each other.”

Characters based on these famous comedians populate the play, including Lucas, who Simon himself modeled after, and who narrates the action to the audience. Many of the cast members are even younger than Bunker, and the director said he sent them clips of period sketches and other comedy bits from that era to familiarize them with the pace and style of the humor.

“I told them, ‘You can do a tribute, but I don’t want too direct an impression of someone.’ Bunker said: “Go back and look at some of the stuff they wrote, look at the interviews they did about their time in the room. It was vicious. Everybody’s fighting to get a joke on the show, but at the end of the day, they all loved each other. And that’s kind of the attitude I was trying to recreate in this show.”

“It’s not much different than today. If you look closely, every family has a problem at some point, especially during election time. Family members have different political views, they argue, but at the end of the day, they still love each other.”

Bunker said it’s fun watching some of those old clips with his 12-year-old son, seeing him laugh hysterically and knowing that humor transcends generations.

The cast includes: Sienna (Drusba) Jerryson, Chase Miles, Mark Bye, John Brien, Jerry Kruse, David Doherty, Casey Murphy, Molly Kravalho and Dominick Spisak.

Bunker is no stranger to directing comedies. He directed TNT’s 2022 production of “The play that goes wrong.” However, this play was more of a farce, emphasizing physical comedy and passages that required technical precision to produce laughs. Simon’s play does have some physical humor, but most of the humor comes from the banter between the characters, most of whom were masters of comedy. These banter are also filled with the kind of language they couldn’t use on television in the 1950s.

“The timing of everything has to be impeccable and the pronunciation has to be perfect,” Bunker said. “I spent a lot more time than usual coaching them on how to express themselves online and saying, ‘Well, try it a little differently. Try saying it like this’… The characters go from angry to happy to angry again in the blink of an eye.”

If you go there…

WHAT: “Laughter on the 23rd floor”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday through September 21 and 3 p.m. September 15 and 22

WHERE: Trumbull New Theater, 5883 Youngstown Warren Road, Niles

HOW MUCH: $20 for adults and $18 for students. trumbullnewtheatre.tix.com and 330-652-1103.

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