Roxy's Downtown presents Neil Simon's 1972 comedy "The Sunshine Boys" across two weekends this month, beginning Thursday, June 20.
The show will be performed at 8 p.m. that day as well as on Friday, June 21, and Saturday, June 22, with performances to follow the subsequent Thursday-Saturday, June 27-29. On both Saturdays, there will also be a 2 p.m. matinee.
First performed on Broadway in late 1972, the comedy arrived during an exceptionally prolific period in Simon's storied career. Between 1961 and 1981, he wrote roughly one play a year, most of them becoming hits and several of them getting a second life via film or television adaptations.
In the case of "The Sunshine Boys," it was adapted for the big screen, resulting in a 1975 feature starring Walter Matthau and George Burns. In 1997, it was presented as a made-for-TV movie starring Peter Falk and Woody Allen.
The play is the story of Al Lewis (David Stone in the Roxy's production) and Willie Clark (JR Hurst), the legendary Vaudevillian comedy team of Lewis and Clark, who are asked to reunite for a television show celebrating the history of comedy. The problem is, although they had chemistry on stage, their personalities are mismatched, and in the years since their last performance, they've done nothing to bridge their personal divides.
The play also stars Deb Campbell as Willie's nurse and John Keckeisen as Willie's nephew and agent, Ben Silverman. (Stone also directed the production, and Campbell served as costume designer.)
Hurst and Campbell recently spoke with KMUW about the production and the themes of "The Sunshine Boys."
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
In some ways "The Sunshine Boys" is reminiscent of Neil Simon's earlier work, "The Odd Couple."
JR Hurst: That's very true. I was thinking about that the other day. It is very much that kind of a thing of two friends, in this case, two business partners, but their relationship is kind of like a marriage. That feeds into why Willie is so bitter. He feels like he's been abandoned. Al suddenly threw a divorce at him and changed his life. It's very much like that, and yet it's a different kind of a situation because "The Odd Couple," of course, is two guys in their 30s or 40s, and this is about two guys who are in their 70s.
That's actually another interesting point: Their ages. I'm figuring that, from evidence in the script, that Neil Simon was [thinking that] Willie would be about 72. It was performed in 1972. But the thing is that these characters play a lot older than 72. That's probably because I'm 66, so 70 doesn't seem that old. [Laughs.]
But, back then, someone in their 70s was, generally, going to be stooped, shuffling. Today, with advances in medicine and just the general knowledge of how to take care of yourself and keeping fit and eating better, people around 70 don't seem that old.
In my head … instead of being born in 1900, he was born in 1895 or somewhere in there. He's in his late 70s, maybe closer to 80. That makes it [read differently] to a modern audience. Some people might say, "I'm 69. I'm not that decrepit." I think it really is that people got older soon back 50 years ago.
Deb Campbell: It really is about Willie. It's centered on Willie and all of his relationships. He has a wonderful relationship with his nephew, played by John Keckeisen. His nephew is a very good agent, but [Willie] is somewhat abusive to him. He's messing up when he goes to auditions, but he's constantly wanting auditions. What's a guy to do? An agent? Then, [there's Willie's] relationship with Al, played by David Stone.
Willie has a lot of grudges against Al for a lot of reasons.
JRH: Mostly trivial reasons.
DC: Very trivial. A lot of [those problems stem from] how they worked together. And then there's a new relationship, which is with the nurse, my character. JR is hilarious. I've worked with JR since the early '80s, and I have a hard time keeping a straight face on stage or in the audience. I think that's what a lot of the show's about: Willie's grudges and his relationships and also his inability to slow down as he ages. Which we probably all need to take a heads up on.
Willie's situation in life is interesting. What do you do when you've been trained in life to do one thing and it disappears?
JRH: That's one of the contrasts between Willie and Al. Al retired and became a stockbroker. He went on and had another life. We know from the dialogue in the show that Al's wife has only passed away in the last couple of years. He had that relationship and now lives with his daughter. Al had a life outside of show business. Willie relied on his wife for everything else. They were a childless couple. We figure that his wife was the one who said, "We'll have the folks over for Canasta." They kept in touch with friends and whatnot. After his wife passes away, he's got nothing left except his partnership with Al. When he's got nothing else to think about, he thinks about the things that Al does to irritate him. Even though they're not important things. They're trivial. He likes to pick at them. He keeps them in. He can't express himself. He expresses himself through jokes and teasing and needling. That's why his nephew loves him, but Willie always says, "Why can't you get me a job? Huh?"
He's a character that is cantankerous and abrasive and even verging on the abusive. But, at the same time, that comes from his loneliness and insecurities. We figure that he was a Depression kid. He was a Jewish kid having to scrabble his way up. He went into doing comedy and that was his whole life, but it's not like he said, "I'm a comic, I'm having fun." It was, "We gotta time this better. If I was here to enjoy it, I'd buy a ticket."
DC: Another thing about their relationship is that Al is probably the person in Willie's life who Willie respects the most because of his talent … on stage. And yet he finds things to be upset about. Very interesting character, Willie.
"Sunshine Boys" is a physical comedy but there are physical elements within it.
JRH: This is not real slapstick, although in the first part of the second act it is [a situation where] they've gotten hired to be on a TV show about the history of comedy, and they're supposed to re-create one of their old sketches. That gets a little … it's not real knockabout but there is some physicality to it. "Stick out your tongue! Open wide! Open wider!" That kind of a thing.
DC: Throwing medical instruments off the stage.
JRH: It's interesting because you suddenly see Willie go from shuffling around to doing the scene, and he's not exactly doing laps, but he is moving quickly, throwing things and saying, "Ah-ha!" and making big gestures. He really comes alive on stage. That's part of the whole thing. He really misses that. But there's more subtle comedy, like Willie's reaction when Al sits in his chair. It's of looks and takes. Sometimes getting wild and jumping up and down in anger, that kind of thing.
DC: There are four human characters in the show but the door to Willie's apartment, for example, is a character in the show. They're constantly not able to get it open. Simon does that a lot. He has inanimate objects that become characters. He pulls out all the tricks in this one. He accidentally keeps kicking the cord out of the wall and saying, "What are ya' doin'? What's the matter with ya?" and twisting the dials and banging on the top of the TV set. There's a lot of that. The environment is a character itself.