About the Play:

Laughter on the 23rd Floor has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor is a full-length comedy by Neil Simon. Broadway hit about a team of comedy writers in television's Golden Era. Neil Simon's play is based on his days writing for a live comedy show in the 1950s, with a temperamental star modelled after Sid Caesar.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor delves into the world of comedy writing and gives a peek into the writer's room of a hit 1950's television show. Inspired by the playwright's youthful experience as a staff writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, he re-creates the mayhem, neuroses, nonstop gags, and constant one-upmanship as the harried writing staff – a team of brilliantly funny social misfits – frantically scrambles to top each other with gags while competing for the attention of star madman "Max Prince," a comic genius, a tyrant, and a paranoiac with a heart of gold. He's loud, brash and larger than life. His temper tantrums and one-liners have the power to make careers, or make misery for the writers working around him. The network censors want to change the show to make it more "advertiser friendly." But messing with Max can only mean the jokes and jabs will get funnier and wilder in an uncertain future, as the world of television heads for change. Laughter On The 23rd Floor has been called "Simon's funniest play!"

Laughter on the 23rd Floor premiered in 1993 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and was a hit running for over 300 performances on Broadway. It opened in West End of London at the Queen's Theatre, where it ran for five months. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 7 male

What people say:

"The funniest comedy on Broadway in years and likely to remain the funniest comedy on Broadway for years." — Variety

"Old style comedy: fast and furious." — Wall Street Journal

"One of [Simon's] funniest...Comedy, comedy all the way." — Newsweek

"Enough laughs per minute to assure [it] a long run and many happy audiences." — USA Today

"screamingly funny." — Philadelphia Inquirer

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.