LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ACQUIRES THE PAPERS OF LEGENDARY PLAYWRIGHT & “PLAZA SUITE AUTHOR” NEIL SIMON
Press Contact for Plaza Suite on Broadway:
Rick Miramontez / Aaron Meier / Briana Sanchez / Timmy Boyko
rick@omdkc.com / aaron@omdkc.com / briana@omdkc.com / timmy@omdkc.com
212 695 7400
Press Contact for Library of Congress
Leah Knobel / Brett Zongker
lknobel@loc.gov / bzongker@loc.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON MONDAY, APRIL 25, PLEASE
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
ACQUIRES THE PAPERS OF TONY & PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING PLAYWRIGHT
NEIL SIMON
DONATION TO BE ANNOUNCED TODAY AT EVENT
AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WITH
MATTHEW BRODERICK & SARAH JESSICA PARKER,
STARS THE BROADWAY REVIVAL OF
“PLAZA SUITE”
Washington, D.C. (April 25, 2022) – The Library of Congress has acquired the manuscripts and papers of playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, the most commercially successful American playwright of the 20th century.
The donation will be announced at a special event with actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, and Elaine Joyce, actor and Simon’s widow, Monday night at the Library. The public is invited to join the event by livestream starting at 7 PM ET on the Library’s YouTube channel.
Parker and Broderick are currently starring in the revival of Simon’s Plaza Suite on Broadway. John Benjamin Hickey, director of Plaza Suite, will moderate the conversation with Broderick and Parker. Joyce will discuss her donation of Simon’s collection to the national library.
“Neil Simon’s work has left an undeniable mark on American culture and theater,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “The donation of Simon’s papers to our nation’s library is a treasured addition to our holdings that enhances our performing arts collection as one of the best in the world. It also ensures Simon’s legacy is preserved for generations to come.”
The collection includes approximately 7,700 items documenting Simon’s creative process and life. The materials range from hundreds of scripts, notes and outlines for his plays, including handwritten first drafts and multiple drafts of typescripts, documenting the evolution of his shows. It contains papers from Simon’s most celebrated plays, including Barefoot in the Park, The Sunshine Boys, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Lost in Yonkers.
The donation also includes materials from the 25 screenplays Simon wrote during his career, including The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Heartbreak Kid, and The Goodbye Girl, in addition to several scripts for shows never completed or produced, such as one titled The Merry Widows, written for Bette Midler and Whoopi Goldberg.
Beyond Simon’s typed scripts, materials in the collection include his Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, dozens of personal notebooks, notes and drafts of letters and speeches. In addition, there are photographs, programs, clippings, original posters and signed baseballs (Simon was a noted fan).
“There was only ever one answer to the question, ‘What do I do with all of Neil’s stuff?’ I am delighted that his brilliant work, his prized possessions, and his personal artifacts will live alongside so many of the world’s treasures in the Library of Congress,” said Elaine Joyce Simon, actor and Simon’s widow. “I hope that by providing access to these materials for students, researchers and educators, Neil’s singular mind will continue to inspire generations of theater makers and comedy writers well into the future.”
A few highlights of the collection include:
- Dozens of notebooks, full of Simon’s tight scrawl. Some are clearly first drafts written in his study, while others were likely notes scribbled in the back of darkened theaters, including changes, additions, and notes for the actors or director, inspired by what he saw on stage during rehearsals.
- A yellowing first act of Barefoot in the Park. Sixty years old now, it wasn’t Simon’s first Broadway show, but it was, perhaps one that marks the beginning of his unequaled track record. It was also the first appearance on Broadway of a then unknown actor, Robert Redford.
- Perhaps the most surprising discovery in the collection has been over a dozen notepads filled with watercolors, drawings, and cartoons by Simon.
- Simon began his career in the 1950s writing for radio and television, famously for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows.” By the end of his career, Simon had 30 new shows open on Broadway, not including revivals. While Simon was known for writing comedies, he took on increasingly serious subjects, including the 1991 play Lost in Yonkers, which received the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Simon was nominated for an unprecedented 14 Tony Awards throughout his career and won three, in addition to a special prize for contribution to the theatre. He died in 2018 in New York City.
The papers of Neil Simon join those of other prolific Broadway playwrights held in the Library’s performing arts collections, such as the Arthur Laurents Collection, the screenwriter and playwright whose films include The Way We Were, The Turning Point, and writer of the librettos for the musicals West Side Story and Gypsy. The Library also holds the Marvin Hamlisch Collection; Hamlisch and Simon collaborated on the musicals They’re Playing Our Song and The Goodbye Girl. The papers of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, close friends of Simon’s and his collaborators for the musical Sweet Charity, are also housed in the Library’s collection.
The Music Division at the Library of Congress — formally established in 1897 within the Library’s Jefferson Building upon its completion — traces the origin of its collections to the 13 books on music literature and theory in Thomas Jefferson’s library, purchased by Congress in 1815. Today, the division’s collections number close to 25 million items, including the manuscripts and papers of hundreds of composers, lyricists, playwrights, screenwriters, performers, musicians, directors, designers, and choreographers, in addition to music and book collections, microforms and copyright deposits.
ABOUT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
ABOUT “PLAZA SUITE”
Neil Simon’s classic comedy Plaza Suite, starring two-time Tony Award® winner Matthew Broderick and two-time Emmy Award® winner Sarah Jessica Parker, directed by Tony Award winner John Benjamin Hickey is now playing a strictly limited engagement at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre (141 West 44th Street) through Wednesday, July 6.
Plaza Suite also stars Danny Bolero as The Waiter, Drama Desk Award® nominee Molly Ranson as Jean McCormick/Mimsey Hubley, and Eric Wiegand as The Bellhop/Borden Eisler. The cast is completed by Tony Award winner Michael McGrath and Tony Award nominee Erin Dilly, who will standby for Broderick and Parker, respectively; in addition to understudies Cesar J. Rosado, Laurie Veldheer, Brian Eng, and Olivia Hernandez. Plaza Suite began previews on Broadway and officially opened on Monday, March 28.
This production marks the first time Broderick and Parker have shared a Broadway stage since the 1995 revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. This event is Broderick’s return to the words of Neil Simon, having won his first Tony Award for creating the role of Eugene Jerome in Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, followed by its sequel, Biloxi Blues.
Two world-class actors play three hilarious couples in this uproarious and piercing look at love and marriage from legendary playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner Neil Simon. This new production is the first revival of a Neil Simon play following his passing August 2018 at the age 91.
The design team for Plaza Suite is two-time Tony Award winner John Lee Beatty (set design), Tony Award winner Jane Greenwood (costume design), five-time Tony Award winner Brian MacDevitt (lighting design), Tony Award winner Scott Lehrer (sound design), Tony Award winner Marc Shaiman (incidental music), and Jim Carnahan (casting director). Plaza Suite is general managed by 101 Productions, Ltd.
Plaza Suite is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Hal Luftig, with James L. Nederlander, Douglas L. Meyer, Elizabeth Armstrong, Hunter Arnold, Caitlin Clements, Eilene Davidson Productions, Jeffrey Finn, Terry Schnuck, Smith and Brant Theatricals, Sherry and Kirk Wright, and Mike Isaacson.
For tickets and additional information, please visit www.plazasuitebroadway.com.
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