About the Play:

Come Blow Your Horn has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes.

Come Blow Your Horn is a full-length comic drama by Neil Simon. Alan Baker, a 30-ish bachelor playboy with time, money and women to spare, welcomes rebellious and eager 21-year brother Buddy into his den of iniquity while their horrified parents can only watch and pray. Come Blow Your Horn is a hilarious satire on the bachelor lifestyle that launched this prolific playwright's Broadway career.

Come Blow Your Horn is a light-hearted comedy that concerns the growing pains of two brothers in New York and the parents and young women who keep coming in and out of their lives. Alan is a bachelor-about-town (New York City, of course) in the swinging, pre-Beatles 1960s, cruising through life with no commitments, no worries and plenty of girls. When his younger brother, Buddy, moves in with him, though, his world is turned upside-down. Their father, who wants his sons to take over the family business, is outraged by their lifestyle. The mother tries to make peace in the family, but a reconciliation is not in sight until Buddy's irresponsible behaviour reminds Alan of himself. To the delight of his parents, Alan realizes that it may be time for him to grow up, marry his girl friend Connie and settle down. But what about Buddy? This farcical romp has all classic characters and comic moments that are trademarks of later Neil Simon plays – very funny line-by-line dialogue, warmly drawn characters, and an apartment setting. There is even a hint of his future successes when an unseen character – mentioned briefly – is named Felix Unger (later to be celebrated in The Odd Couple).

Come Blow Your Horn premiered in 1961 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, became a smash hit and ran for 19 months on Broadway. It opened in the West End of London in 1962 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, and was later adapted by Norman Lear becoming a hit movie starring Frank Sinatra. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in community theatre productions.

Cast: 4 female, 3 male

What people say:

"A slick, lively, funny comedy." — New York Times

"It's completely nuts and banging with laughs." — New York World-Telegram

"Neil Simon's first full-length stage comedy, Come Blow Your Horn, is also one of his straight-ahead funniest – there's no soggy pathos slowing things down here. It's also instructive, blueprinting themes that he'd follow from then on and even previewing a couple of popular characters from his most popular show." — Los Angeles Times

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.