About the Play:

Proposals is a full-length romantic comedy-drama by Neil Simon. Romantic entanglements overlap in one idyllic afternoon as a divorced man, his daughter and his housekeeper are joined by an eccentric and offbeat group of friends, lovers and passing acquaintances in Neil Simon's comedy.

Proposals is a nostalgic memory play that delightfully recalls the last time the Hines family gathered at their retreat in the Poconos. The summer of 1953 brings romantic entanglements that coalesce one idyllic afternoon; Burt Hines, mid-50's and convalescing from a second heart attack, eagerly anticipates the arrival of the ex-wife he still loves. Daughter Josie has just broken her engagement to a Harvard law student and pines for his buddy Ray, an aspiring writer with whom she once had a brief fling. Clemma, the devoted black housekeeper at the center of the action casts an astute eye on the complications while facing with her own unresolved past.

Proposals had pre-Broadway engagements in 1997 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It premiered that same year at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway. The play is regularly performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 4 women, 5 men.

What people say:

"New directions from the dazzlingly successful playwright who changed the very face of comedy on Broadway.." — New York Times

"As long as Neil Simon keeps turning out his glossy fantasies, loosely woven from mildly autobiographical inventions, such sadly endangered species as the Broadway comedy and the well made play will never give up the ghost...extremely entertaining...a play of great warmth and charm. Simon plays his characters as if he were playing poker and winning and we sit back and enjoy ." — New York Post

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 have been blockbuster hits from Beijing to Moscow. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit.