About the Play:

The Star-Spangled Girl has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.

The Star-Spangled Girl is a full-length romantic comedy by Neil Simon. This fast moving, hilarious comedy, deals with two earnest young men struggling to put out a "protest" magazine, and the all-American girl who moves in next door and manages to send both of them into a romantic tail spin. Neil Simon's masterful mix of wit and rapid-fire dialogue will bring your audience an evening filled with high energy comedic flare.

The Star-Spangled Girl is a love triangle, mixed with politics set in San Francisco. Andy and Norman are two radicals who barely make a living using their apartment as a publishing office for their "protest" magazine, Fallout, which is dedicated to fighting "the system" in 1960's America. Sophie, a former Olympic swimmer and all-American girl, moves into another apartment on the same floor. Sophie makes her first appearance paying a good-neighbour visit to the combination home and office of the two publishers. Her friendliness and charm leave Norman hopelessly smitten. Thereafter love, with him, is a determined madness, with the humour of it heightened by her frantic rejection of him. Meanwhile, his partner is fielding telephone calls from the irate printer who wants to collect the money due him, and distracting the landlady from thoughts of back rent with motorcycle rides and surfing expeditions. And while she is convinced that they are editing a dangerously subversive magazine, our heroine soon finds that her real source of annoyance is that the wrong man is pressing his attentions on her. Happily this situation is reversed in time, as love and politics blend delightfully in a bubbling series of funny happenings, set forth with the masterly skill and inventiveness that are the hallmarks of Neil Simon.

The Star-Spangled Girl premiered in 1966 at the Plymouth Theatre and ran for more than 18 months on Broadway. The play is regularly performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 2 male

What people say:

"Mr. Simon can do wonders…with casually tossed-off fantasies that pop up from nowhere and whistle as they go by." — New York Times

"…charm, brightness, deft inventiveness and capacity for good, honest hilarity…." — New York Post

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.