Neil Simon Monologues: Speeches from the Works of America's Foremost Playwright

by Neil Simon, Roger Karshner (Editor)

This is the first authorized collection of monologues from Mr. Simon's plays and the most significant contribution to the drama genre in the past twenty-five years. As a scene-study book it is invaluable to actors at all levels. This definitive publication contains speeches for men and women from "Come Blow Your Horn" through "Jake's Women." Each play is comprehensively synopsized, and an in-depth exposition establishing setting and intent precedes each speech. With an introduction by Jack Lemmon.

Genres: Drama, Theatre, Plays

190 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 plays and he received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. He was one of the most reliable hitmakers in Broadway history, as well as one of the most performed playwrights in the world. Though primarily a comic writer, some of his plays, particularly the Eugene Trilogy and The Sunshine Boys, reflect on the twentieth century Jewish-American experience.

Reviews

[Mark Woodland · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as monologue books go, this is a good collection (being that we a are a theatre family, who also coach people in audition skills, we have quite a few of these). Neil Simon writes great dialogue, there's no doubt about it, and this book is not short on some of the best (My personal favorite being the "Mayonnaise" speech from The Last of the Red Hot Lovers). The problem, though, is that so many people know these plays and have heard these speeches before. Not only that, any director has probably seen them in other auditions. Why, then, would you want to set yourself up to have to COMPETE with every other version they've ever seen? Also, you'll have lost the element of surprise and freshness by bringing in something relatively unknown and that they haven't seen before. That's worked countless times for me. If one is looking for a book of monologues, I can recommend better candidates than this one for those reasons. Read Simon's plays, enjoy them, but don't use pieces of them as audition pieces.

[Sally N. Inglis]

A Book Crossing book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough grouping of monologues, including short comprehensive plot discussions of each play and the context for each monologue. Very useful, even if some of the monologues are a bit dated. Neil Simon wrote fantastic dialogue for actors.