About the Play:

45 Seconds from Broadway is a full-length comedy by Neil Simon. This uproariously funny play takes place in the Polish Tea Room where an assortment of theatrical types, from a controversial comedian to a fading actress to matinee ladies, are all taken care of by the couple who run the restaurant. From Neil Simon, America's master of Contemporary Broadway Comedy, it is said that 45 Seconds from Broadway is his "Valentine to New York."

45 Seconds from Broadway is a heart-warming comedy that takes us behind the scenes in the entertainment world, this time near the heart of New York City's theatre district. The title refers to the amount of time it takes to walk to Broadway from the play's setting, the popular Broadway district eatery Café Edison on New York's 47th Street. Part homage and part farce, this play is Neil Simon's tribute to what he calls "the last bastion of what used to be the greatness of Broadway Theater!" Before giant productions of singing jungle animals took over the Great White Way, there were actual plays on Broadway, and those plays started in coffee shops like the one in which this play is set. Characters wander in and out, sitting down, chatting with each other, building friendships, and giving glimpses into their lives in the "Big Apple." Nicknamed the Polish Tea Room, in homage to Bernie and Zelda, the couple who run the place and make it what it is – a home away from home for everyone who enters. They also help young, starving artists by giving them food, advice, and employment. Broadway theatre personalities – both washed-up and on-the-rise – and native New Yorkers also frequent the coffee shop, bringing character, humour, and wisdom with them. 45 Seconds from Broadway offers great acting roles in a play about normal, everyday people, their tragedies and triumphs, and the small coffee shop in which they sit, relax, and spend time among friends.

45 Seconds from Broadway premiered in 2001 on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City. The play is regularly performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 6 female, 6 male

What people say:

"The play may have the rat-a-tat pace of a Marx Brothers movie, but it exists not to create Groucho-like anarchy but to weave fractured lives into healing harmony." — The New York Times

"A warm-spirited tribute... a theatrical valentine." — Variety

"With 45 Seconds from Broadway Mr. Simon is back to doing what he does best: straight comedy peppered with one-liners." — CurtainUp

About the Playwright:

Neil Simon (1927-2018) was America's most prolific playwright. He had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He was showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer, and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. His plays have been produced in dozens of languages, and in 1983 became the only living playwright to have a New York theatre, the Neil Simon Theatre, named in his honour. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit.