Executive Director's Welcome!
The Golden Age of Television. Ask most TV historians and they'll likely be referring to the period between 1947 and 1960, when a Beaver was a really cute kid and almost every father knew best.
Among the most popular were variety shows, none the least of which was the much-lauded YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS (later named CAESAR'S HOUR) hosted by Sid Caesar. Some of the best comedy minds in the business - many of whom went on to earn greater accolades - were: Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, Michael Stewart, Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen, Selma Diamond, and Woody Allen. Look them up if you're not familiar with them, but you've likely seen much of their work on stage and TV over the years.
LAUGHTER ON THE 23rd FLOOR is a somewhat autobiographical memory play based on Neil SImon's time writing for YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS. Each character in the play is loosely based on one of the crazy writers he had worked with as a junior writer. Max is based on Caesar himself; hypochondriac Ira was inspired by Mel Brooks and the fussy Russian immigrant, Val, was inspired by Mel Token. Just like the novel, film and TV versions of MASH showed sometimes extreme versions of life under fire, these writers were probably as crazy or more than we'll see on our stage.
I am thrilled to open our 32nd season with this Neil Simon masterpiece. I have always been a huge fan of his work and this is one of his shows that I had never worked on. It has been a joy to watch rehearsals and laugh at the antics of the characters and our actors creating them, However, this is only one of the many shows we have here and that I'm excited about.
Another bucket-list show for me has been CABARET, which opens later this month on The Kweskin stage. The cast is well into rehearsal and the show looks great. I hope you'll join us for that production and many others we have on deck for you. Our full season listing is in this program. Remember, our discounted Flex Pass Subscriptions offer savings of about 25% off regular adult prices. If you purchased a single ticket for this performance, you may apply the cost of that ticket to any of our FlexPass options.
Thanks again for being here. Enjoy the show.
Lou Ursone
Executive Director
Curtain Call, Inc.
Lucas Johnson
Peter
Milt Fields
Mark A. Sank
Val Skolsky
Greg Suss
Brian Doyle
Roger Dykeman
Kenny Franks
Parke Stevenson
Carol Wyman
Katie Imholt
Max Prince
David Neilsen
Helen
Candice Sisbarro
Ira Stone
Stuart Adelberg
Setting
An office on the 23rd floor of a building on 57th Street, New York, City
ACT I
March 1953
ACT II
Scene one: Seven Months later
Scene Two: Christmas Eve
Producer
Lou Ursone
Director
Richard Mancini
Set Design
Meghan Connolly
Lighting Design
Jamie LaJoie
Sound Design
John Zimmerman
Costume Design
Robin Mazzola
Production Stage Managers
Sheila Toner, Jan Ursone
Assistant Technical Director
Wayne Yeager
Production Assistants
Meghan Connolly, Marc Ursone
