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One of America's most popular and prolific playwrights is Neil Simon. Having seventeen Broadway productions to his credit, as well as screenplays and television scripts, Simon has entertained audiences for over twenty years. He has been hailed as the most formidable comedy writer in American theatre, and it is this reputation, based on his early plays, that has dogged Simon relentlessly and prevented his being considered a serious dramatist by many critics. They have at times refused to look beyond the writer's "detonatingly funny" quips and punchlines to the subject matter in his plays. Though Simon has often been accused of sacrificing meaning and depth to a good joke, this charge is only occasionally true. Even in Simon's lightest comedies there are undertones of seriousness. Much like Philip Barry of a generation ago, Simon feels that his comedy approaches serious themes, and he rejects the notion that tragedy and comedy do not mix.
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