Appreciation …

… Neil Simon (1927-2018): The King of Stage Comedy - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… I’ve come to feel in recent years that Mr. Simon’s best plays are worthy of revival—if they’re directed in a way that brings out their seriousness instead of going for too-easy laughs. Jenn Thompson’s 2012 off-Broadway revival of “Lost in Yonkers,” which she staged as a down-the-center family drama instead of leaning on the comedy, persuaded me that I’d been too quick to dismiss Mr. Simon as a voice from the distant past. Since then I’ve seen several equally compelling regional revivals of his work that bode well for its long-term prospects.