Editing Neil Simon (section)

== Writing style and subject matter ==
The key aspect most consistent in Simon's writing style is comedy, situational and verbal, and presents serious subjects in a way that makes audiences "laugh to avoid weeping".<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|192}} He achieved this with rapid-fire jokes and wisecracks,<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|150}} in a wide variety of urban settings and stories.<ref name="Johnson" />{{rp|139}} This creates a "sophisticated, urban humor", says editor Kimball King, and results in plays that represent "middle America".<ref name="Konas" />{{rp|1}} Simon created everyday, apparently simple conflicts with his stories, which became comical premises for problems which needed be solved.<ref name="Konas" />{{rp|2–3}}

Another feature of his writing is his adherence to traditional values regarding marriage and family.<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|150}} McGovern states that this thread of the monogamous family runs through most of Simon's work, and is one he feels is necessary to give stability to society.<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|189}} Some critics have therefore described his stories as somewhat old fashioned, although Johnson points out that most members of his audiences "are delighted to find Simon upholding their own beliefs".<ref name="Johnson" />{{rp|142}} And where infidelity is the theme in a Simon play, rarely, if ever, do those characters gain happiness: "In Simon's eyes," adds Johnson, "divorce is never a victory."<ref name="Johnson" />{{rp|142}}

Another aspect of Simon's style is his ability to combine both comedy and drama. ''Barefoot in the Park'', for example, is a light romantic comedy, while portions of ''Plaza Suite'' were written as "farce", and portions of ''California Suite'' are "high comedy".<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|149}}

Simon was willing to experiment and take risks, often moving his plays in new and unexpected directions. In ''[[The Gingerbread Lady]]'', he combined comedy with tragedy; ''[[Rumors (play)|Rumors]]'' (1988) is a full-length farce; in ''[[Jake's Women]]'' and ''[[Brighton Beach Memoirs]]'' he used dramatic narration; in ''[[The Good Doctor (play)|The Good Doctor]]'', he created a "pastiche of sketches" around various stories by [[Chekhov]]; and ''[[Fools (play)|Fools]]'' (1981), was written as a fairy-tale romance similar to stories by [[Sholem Aleichem]].<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|150}} Although some of these efforts failed to win approval from many critics, Koprince claims that they nonetheless demonstrate Simon's "seriousness as a playwright and his interest in breaking new ground."<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|150}}

=== Characters ===
Simon's characters are typically "imperfect, unheroic figures who are at heart decent human beings", according to Koprince, and she traces Simon's style of comedy back to that of [[Menander]], a playwright of ancient Greece. Menander, like Simon, also used average people in domestic life settings, and also blended humor and tragedy into his themes.<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|6}} Many of Simon's most memorable plays are built around two-character scenes, as in segments of ''California Suite'' and ''Plaza Suite''.

Before writing, Simon tried to create an image of his characters. He said that the play ''[[Star Spangled Girl]]'', which was a box-office failure, was "the only play I ever wrote where I did not have a clear visual image of the characters in my mind as I sat down at the typewriter."<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|4}} Simon considered "character building" an obligation, stating that the "trick is to do it skillfully".<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|4}} While other writers have created vivid characters, they have not created nearly as many as Simon did: "Simon has no peers among contemporary comedy playwrights", stated biographer Robert Johnson.<ref name="Johnson" />{{rp|141}}

Simon's characters often amuse the audience with sparkling "zingers", made believable by Simon's skillful writing of dialogue. He reproduces speech so "adroitly" that his characters are usually plausible and easy for audiences to identify with and laugh at.<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|190}} His characters may also express "serious and continuing concerns of mankind&nbsp;... rather than purely topical material".<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|10}} McGovern notes that his characters are always impatient "with phoniness, with shallowness, with amorality", adding that they sometimes express "implicit and explicit criticism of modern urban life with its stress, its vacuity, and its materialism."<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|11}} However, Simon's characters are never seen thumbing their noses at society."<ref name="Johnson" />{{rp|141}}

=== Themes and genres ===
Theater critic [[John Lahr]] believes that Simon's primary theme is "the silent majority", many of whom are "frustrated, edgy, and insecure". Simon's characters are  "likable" and easy for audiences to identify with. They often have difficult relationships in marriage, friendship or business, as they "struggle to find a sense of belonging".<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|5}} According to biographer Edythe McGovern, there is always "an implied seeking for solutions to human problems through relationships with other people, [and] Simon is able to deal with serious topics of universal and enduring concern", while still making people laugh.<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|11}}

McGovern adds that one of Simon's hallmarks is his "great compassion for his fellow human beings",<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|188}} an opinion shared by author Alan Cooper, who observes that Simon's plays "are essentially about friendships, even when they are about marriage or siblings or crazy aunts&nbsp;..."<ref name="Konas" />{{rp|46}}

Many of Simon's plays are set in [[New York City]], with a resulting urban flavor. Within that setting, Simon's themes include marital conflict,  infidelity, sibling rivalry, adolescence, bereavement and fear of aging. Despite the serious nature of these ideas, Simon always manages to tell the stories with humor, embracing both realism and comedy.<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|11}} Simon would tell aspiring comedy playwrights "not to try to make it funny&nbsp;... try and make it real and then the comedy will come."<ref name="Konas" />{{rp|232}}

"When I was writing plays", he said, "I was almost always (with some exceptions) writing a drama that was funny&nbsp;... I wanted to tell a story about real people."<ref name="Konas" />{{rp|219}} Simon explained how he managed this combination:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | text=My view is, "how sad and funny life is." I can't think of a humorous situation that does not involve some pain. I used to ask, "What is a funny situation?" Now I ask, "What is a sad situation and how can I tell it humorously?"<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|14}}}}

His comedies often portray struggles with marital difficulties or fading love, sometimes leading to separation, divorce and child custody issues. After many twists in the plot, the endings typically show renewal of the relationships.<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|7}}

Politics seldom plays in Simon's stories, and his characters avoid confronting society as a whole, despite their personal problems. "Simon is simply interested in showing human beings as they are—with their foibles, eccentricities, and absurdities."<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|9}} Drama critic [[Richard Eder]] noted that Simon's popularity relies on his ability to portray a "painful comedy", where characters say and do funny things in extreme contrast to the unhappiness they are feeling.<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|14}}

Simon's plays are generally semi-autobiographical, often portraying aspects of his troubled childhood and first marriages. According to Koprince, Simon's plays also "invariably depict the plight of white middle-class Americans, most of whom are New Yorkers and many of whom are Jewish, like himself."<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|5}} He has said, "I suppose you could practically trace my life through my plays."<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|10}} In ''Lost in Yonkers'', Simon suggests the necessity of a loving marriage (as opposed to his parents'), and how children who are deprived of it in their home, "end up emotionally damaged and lost".<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|13}}

According to Koprince, Simon's Jewish heritage is a key influence on his work, although he is unaware of it when writing. For example, in the ''Brighton Beach'' trilogy, she explains, the lead character is a "master of self-deprecating humor, cleverly poking fun at himself and at his Jewish culture as a whole."<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|9}} Simon himself has said that his characters are people who are "often self-deprecating and [who] usually see life from the grimmest point of view",<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|9}} explaining, "I see humor in even the grimmest of situations. And I think it's possible to write a play so moving it can tear you apart and still have humor in it."<ref name="Playboy" /> This theme in writing, notes Koprince, "belongs to a tradition of Jewish humor&nbsp;... a tradition which values laughter as a defense mechanism and which sees humor as a healing, life-giving force."<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|9}}

=== Critical response ===
During most of his career, Simon's work received mixed reviews, with many critics admiring his comedy skills, much of it a blend of "humor and pathos".<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|4}} Other critics were less complimentary, noting that much of his dramatic structure was weak and sometimes relied too heavily on gags and one-liners. As a result, notes Kopince, "literary scholars had generally ignored Simon's early work, regarding him as a commercially successful playwright rather than a serious dramatist."<ref name="Koprince" />{{rp|4}} [[Clive Barnes]], theater critic for ''The New York Times'', wrote that like his British counterpart [[Noël Coward]], Simon was "destined to spend most of his career underestimated", but nonetheless very "popular".<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|foreword}}

{{quote box|align=right|width=35em|bgcolor = Cornsilk|quote=Simon towers like a Colossus over the American Theater. When Neil Simon's time comes to be judged among successful playwrights of the twentieth century, he will definitely be first among equals. No other playwright in history has had the run he has: fifteen "Best Plays" of their season.|source=—Lawrence Grobel<ref name="Grobel" />{{rp|371}}}}
This attitude changed after 1991, when he won a Pulitzer Prize for drama with ''[[Lost in Yonkers]]''. McGovern writes that "seldom has even the most astute critic recognized what depths really exist in the plays of Neil Simon."<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|foreword}} When ''Lost in Yonkers'' was considered by the Pulitzer Advisory Board, board member Douglas Watt noted that it was the only play nominated by all five jury members, and that they judged it "a mature work by an enduring (and often undervalued) American playwright."<ref name="Konas" />{{rp|1}}

McGovern compares Simon with noted earlier playwrights, including [[Ben Jonson]], [[Molière]], and [[George Bernard Shaw]], pointing out that those playwrights had "successfully raised fundamental and sometimes tragic issues of universal and therefore enduring interest without eschewing the comic mode." She concludes, "It is my firm conviction that Neil Simon should be considered a member of this company&nbsp;... an invitation long overdue."<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|foreword}} McGovern attempts to explain the response of many critics:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | text=Above all, his plays which may appear simple to those who never look beyond the fact that they are amusing are, in fact, frequently more perceptive and revealing of the human condition than many plays labeled complex dramas.<ref name="McGovern" />{{rp|192}}}}

Similarly, literary critic Robert Johnson explains that Simon's plays have given us a "rich variety of entertaining, memorable characters" who portray the human experience, often with serious themes. Although his characters are "more lifelike, more complicated and more interesting" than most of the characters audiences see on stage, Simon has "not received as much critical attention as he deserves."<ref name="Johnson" />{{rp|preface}} Lawrence Grobel, in fact, calls him "the Shakespeare of his time", and possibly the "most successful playwright in history."<ref name="Grobel" />{{rp|371}} He states:

Broadway critic [[Walter Kerr]] tries to rationalize why Simon's work has been underrated:

{{Blockquote |style=font-size: 100%; |text=Because Americans have always tended to underrate writers who make them laugh, Neil Simon's accomplishment have not gained as much serious critical praise as they deserve. His best comedies contain not only a host of funny lines, but numerous memorable characters and an incisively dramatized set of beliefs that are not without merit. Simon is, in fact, one of the finest writers of comedy in American literary history.<ref name="Johnson" />{{rp|144}}}}