Additional Resources

June 6, 2013

(Marvin) Neil Simon Sheila Ennis Geitner

This is a brief description of Neil Simons life and his writings.

In this description of Neil Simon it explains the plot of Barefoot in the Park as well as a short character analysis and what his point was in writing the show in the first place.

Understanding Neil Simon Susan Koprince

In the following essay, Koprince focuses on defining characteristics of Simon's plays and screenplays, and offers an assessment of his literary achievement.

By understanding the characteristics of all of his plays, a better understanding of Barefoot in the Park and why he decided to write it will emerge. There is also a description of his life in the essay which effected his writing style and the content of the plays he wrote.

An Interview with Neil Simon Neil Simon and Jackson R. Bryer

This interview was conducted on January 23, 1992, in Simon's suite at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, while he was preparing Lost in Yonkers (then playing at Washington's National Theatre) for its Broadway opening.

With an actual interview, a production team can see what Neil Simons actual words were about the plays he wrote and what his intentions were first hand. This is an extremely valuable source because not only does he talk about his background, he also speaks of his writing style and the reasons behind choices he made for certain characters and certain plays he wrote.

Chapter 1: Broadway Bound Robert K. Johnson

Robert K. Johnson first looks at Neil Simons life and then takes a different look at the text of the play Barefoot in the Park and examines it very critically. 

This is very valuable for a production team because it is not a happy examination of the piece. Robert K. Johnson really digs deep and criticizes the irregularities of the text and then explains how it is not very true to life at all.

Taking a Second Look at Neil Simon Terry Teachout

The article discusses the work of U.S. playwright Neil Simon. It mentions the success of his plays such as Lost in Yonkers, The Odd Couple, and Barefoot in the Park while tracing his career path. Simon's progression towards darker comedies that had a more melancholy tone is explored, as well as the inspiration he drew from his personal life. Other topics covered include Simon's view of comedy, sentimentality in Lost in Yonkers, and a failed revival of his Brighton Beach.

By taking a second look into Neil Simons life, it is obvious that the things he lived through made him able to write the things he did. This article looks at more than just Barefoot in the Park but really opens up Neil Simon as a real human being.

Video Interview with Neil Simon Bill Boggs

Exegesis

June 5, 2013

Exegesis: Barefoot in the Park

Act one

Stage Directions: Old Brownstone (5)

An old building made of sandstone, a popular building material. 

Stage Directions: East Forties off Third Avenue (5)

An area of streets that range from 40th st to 49th st. in New York City.

Stage Directions: crests of snow (5)

Banks of snow that sit (in this case) on the ledge of the buildings out the window.

Stage Directions: dressing room (5)

A room for dressing.

Stage Directions: steamer trunk (5)

A trunk with a flat top.

Stage Directions: Franklin Stove (5)

The Franklin stove is a metal-lined fireplace named after its inventor, Benjamin Franklin. It was invented in 1741. It had a hollow baffle near the rear (to transfer more heat from the fire to a room's air) and relied on an "inverted siphon" to draw the fire's hot fumes around the baffle. It was intended to produce more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fireplace. Source

Man: Princess phone (7)

The Princess telephone was introduced by the Bell System in 1959. It was a compact telephone designed for convenient use in the bedroom, and contained a light-up dial for use as a night-light. It was commonly advertised with the slogan "It's little...It's lovely...It lights", which was suggested by Robert Karl Lethin, an AT&T employee. Source

Corie: schlurp (7)

The closest I could find was slurp.

Stage Directions: telephone junction box (8)

An electrical junction box is a container for electrical connections, usually intended to conceal them from sight and deter tampering.

Man: "What's My Line" (8)

A panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations. It is the longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-show. Source

Corie: Bloomingdale's (8)

Bloomingdale's has the best selection of designer clothes, handbags, shoes, jewelry, home furnishings, cosmetics, and accessories for women, men and kids. Source 

Voice: Lord and Taylor (8)

Retail and online shopping for clothing, accessories, jewelry and fragrances. Source

Man: "Elderado 5-8191" (10)

History of the telephone number.

Man: The Sweepstakes (10)

The United States consumer sales promotion known as a sweepstake (also known by its inflected forms which are both single and plural: sweepstakes and sweeps) has become associated with marketing promotions targeted toward both generating enthusiasm and providing incentive reactions among customers by enticing consumers to submit free entries into drawings of chance (and not skill) that are tied to product or service awareness wherein the featured prizes are given away by sponsoring companies. Prizes can vary in value from less than one dollar to more than one million U.S. dollars and can be in the form of cash, cars, homes, electronics, etc. Source

Stage Directions: attaché case (12)

An attaché case is a box-style case made of leather (occasionally aluminium), scrunched over a hinged frame that opens into two compartments. It was traditionally carried by an attaché, a diplomatic officer attached to an embassy or consulate officially assigned to serve in a particular capacity (e.g., cultural attaché; military attaché). Source

Corie: The Plaza (13)

Address: 768 5th Ave, New York, NY 10019

Paul: Schraffts (14)

Address: 13th Street and Fifth Avenue

Paul: Oliver Wendell Holmes (14)

(March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932. Source

Paul: affidavits (14)

A written declaration made under oath before a notary public or other authorized officer. Affidavits

Paul: furrier (15)

One whose occupation is the dressing, designing, cleaning, or repairing of furs. Furrier

Script Analysis

June 4, 2013

Playwright

Neil Simon is the world’s most successful playwright. He has had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He has been 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 have been blockbuster hits from Beijing to Moscow. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit.
 Born in the Bronx on July 4, 1927, Marvin Neil Simon grew up in Manhattan and for a short time attended NYU and the University of Denver. His most significant writing job came in the early 1950s when he joined the staff of YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, a landmark live television comedy series. [ … ] By the 1960s, Simon had begun to concentrate on writing plays for Broadway. His first hit came in 1961 with Come Blow Your Horn, and was soon after followed by the very successful comic romance Barefoot in the Park.
 Simon’s brother, Danny, who also worked on YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, played a major role in his writing. Eight and a half years older, Danny brought Simon into the business and had shown him the ropes. In fact, it was Danny who provided the inspiration for one of Simon’s most enduring hits. After his divorce, Danny moved in with another divorced man, and this situation became the set-up for The Odd Couple (1966). Though Danny had begun writing the story himself, he reached a block and eventually handed it off to Simon who soon made it a smash on Broadway. Starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the 1968 film version was equally successful and prompted a popular television series.
 By 1973, Simon was a major voice in contemporary comedy. But, that year he entered a low period in his life, when his wife of twenty years, died. Some time later, he met the actress Marsha Mason, and they were married. His 1977 play, Chapter Two, dramatizes the grief of a newly remarried man trying to start over after his wife has died. Chapter Two was considered one of his finest works and he followed it with a musical, They’re Playing Our Song.
 Throughout his four-decade career, Simon has drawn extensively on his own life and experience for materials for his plays. Many of his works take place in the working-class New York neighborhoods he knew so well as a child. One of Simon’s great achievements has been the insightful representation of the social atmosphere of those times in New York. [ … ] Simon found his greatest critical acclaim, and for his 1991 follow-up, Lost in Yonkers, Simon was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

Source 

Plot Summary

Corie and Paul are newlyweds, fresh from their honeymoon. Corie is still enthralled by her recent sexual awakening and the adventure that comes with youth and marriage. She wants their passionate romantic life to continue at full speed. Paul, however, feels it is time to focus on his burgeoning career as an up-and-coming lawyer. When they don't see eye-to-eye about their apartment, their neighbors, and their sex drive, the new marriage experiences its first patch of rough weather.

Source

Characters

Corie Bratter

A newlywed, Young, pretty, and full of enthusiasm for the future. She is also impulsive and adventurous. 

Paul Bratter

A newlywed and Corie’s husband who is very conservative. He is levelheaded and practical, and he keeps his emotions in check, perhaps too much so. 

Ethel Banks

Corie’s mother with a sensitive stomach and a bad back.

Victor Velasco

The man who lives in the attic upstairs. He is a very eccentric man with the taste for adventure and spicy food.

Harry Pepper

A telephone repairman.

Literary Criticism

Neil Simon has managed to squeeze hidden bits of laughter out of the old jokes, just as one can always get a little more toothpaste out of an empty tube and feel more elation in getting it than in the luxurious first squeeze from a brand new tube.

Source 

The Physical Script

June 3, 2013

Library of Congress

The collected plays of Neil Simon / with an introduction by Neil Simon. (New York: Random House, 1971) Note: Barefoot in the Park is in Vol. 1.
ISBN: 0394473647 (v.1)
LOC: PS3537.I663 A6 1971

Barefoot in the Park: a comedy. (London, New York [etc.] French 1967)
ISBN: N/A
LOC: PS3537.I663 B3 1967

The collected plays of Neil Simon/ with an introduction by Neil Simon. (New York: New American Library, 1986)
ISBN: 0452258707
LOC: PS3537. I663 1986


SHSU Newton Gresham Library

Barefoot in the park: a comedy in three acts/ by Neil Simon. (New York: S. French, c1992)

ISBN: 0573605858

LOC: N/A

Call Number: Plays Bin 33 #766 AND Plays Bin 116 #2242

Barefoot in the park/ by Neil Simon. (New York: S. French, c1964)

ISBN: 0573605858

LOC: PS3537.I663 B3 1964

Retail

Barefoot in the Park: A Comedy in Three Acts (Paperback)

$10.51

Amazon.com

Collected Plays of Neil Simon, Volume 1: The Odd Couple; Plaza Suite; Barefoot in the Park; Come Blow Your Horn; The Star-Spangled Girl; Last of the Red Hot Lovers; Promises, Promises (Paperback)

$20.45

Amazon.com

Barefoot in the Park (Hardcover)

$5.98

Barns and Noble

Acting Editions

Barefoot in the Park

$9.95

Samuel French

Download

Barefoot in the Park is not available to be downloaded online.

Licensing

Licensing can be purchased through Samuel French.

Other

Goodreads has one copy available.

Background of Script

He began writing his own plays beginning with Come Blow Your Horn (1961), which took him three years to complete and ran for 678 performances on Broadway. It was followed by two more successful plays, Barefoot in the Park (1963) and The Odd Couple (1965), for which he won a Tony Award, making him a national celebrity and “the hottest new playwright on Broadway.” His style ranged from romantic comedy to farce to more serious dramatic comedy. Overall, he has garnered seventeen Tony nominations and won three.

Wikipedia