“I like the play Laughter on the 23rd Floor. I think it was not only a really funny play, but it has a lot of things to say about the McCarthy Era, and working in that era. Of what it’s like, not just to write comedy, but to be a family, a group of people that spend more time together than they do with their wives and their children and the pressure of what it’s like to get it out week after week…” – Neil Simon

Paris Review: Neil Simon, The Art of Theater No. 10 (from 1992 while still writing the script.)

“What was unique about that experience was that almost every one of the writers has gone on to do really major things…it was a group of people only Sid Caesar knew how to put together. Maybe it was trial and error because the ones who didn’t work fell out, but once we worked together it was the most excruciatingly hilarious time in my life.” – Neil Simon

Hollywood Reporter: Neil Simon, Celebrated Writer for the Stage and Screen, Dies at 91

“His first big writing break came in 1950 with Your Show of Shows, Caesar’s live sketch comedy series, where he and his older brother, Danny, collaborated with such writers as Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin and Carl Reiner. Simon’s experience working as a junior writer inspired his 1993 play Laughter on the 23rd Floor. “I knew when I walked into Your Show of Shows that this was the most talented group of writers that up until that time had ever been assembled,” he once said.”

Variety: Neil Simon, King of Comedy Playwrights, Dies at 91

“In addition to his four Oscar nominations and 17 Tony nominations, Simon’s works brought an unsurpassed 50 Tony nominations for their actors.

NY Times: Neil Simon, Broadway Master of Comedy, Is Dead at 91

“It was a real learning process,” Mr. Simon said of his days among the Caesarians, a group that has become a television legend and inspired Mr. Simon’s 1993 comedy “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” starring Nathan Lane. “We were exhausted,” he said, adding, “On Monday, you would come in knowing you had six new skits to do.”

NPR: Playwright Neil Simon Explains Why He ‘Just Always Wanted To Write‘

“I don’t think I would like to have been anything else in life but a writer, but I also don’t think I could have been anything else. ” – Neil SimonP

Springville Center for the Arts presents Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor–February 28th through March 1-2, 15-16 at 7:30 pm and Sundays, March 3 & 17 at 2:00 pm. To order tickets call (716) 592-9038 or visit Springville Center for the Arts.