Following the Brighton Beach trilogy and Lost in Yonkers, it appeared Neil Simon was on the brink of creating a host of mature masterworks. Instead, he's moved backwards, papering over thin material with joke after joke (Laughter on the 23rd Floor) or caught between punchlines to build something more serious but frustratingly contrived (The Dinner Party, Proposals). 45 Seconds From Broadway, however, is the most disappointing to date.
For decades, some critics derided him for being a sitcom joke machine (this, when he was churning out deceptively simple, often heart-felt comedies that still work like gangbusters). Alas, Simon now plays right into his naysayers' hands with this relentlessly phony bit of New York nostalgia, set in a restaurant based on the still-extant Edison Cafe (aka "The Polish Tea Room"). John Lee Beatty's terrific set notwithstanding (the bistro onstage feels authentic yet is actually nicer than the Edison), hardly a moment rings true, from the South-African playwright who becomes an instant waiter to the elderly loon who magically snaps out of her insanity.
This could all work as urban fairytale if Simon had bothered to craft a plot, but the first act is rudderless and the second patches together so many sudden crises and quick-fixes, it feels like a comedy crisis center. Funny lines? Of course. The seeds of good stuff? Sure (there's definitely a play in the second-act quarrel between a Jackie Masonish comic and his adoring but resentful older brother).
It's been reported that owing to a back injury, Simon hadn't attended the production since its first preview, robbing him of opportunities to do his usual extensive last-minute rewrites. Too bad, because this one's a lot more than 45 seconds from Broadway caliber.
