["The Prisoner of Second Avenue"] is a comedy about the breakdown of the system in New York. Superficially, it is similar to Simon's screenplay, "The Out-of-Towners," though the main events in the movie—the rapes, the muggings, the burglaries, the endless strikes—are just the background for the play. (In the play, they are described through the deadly technique of a television news announcer in the dark between scenes.)

The foreground of the play shows the breakdown of the system as it relates to the individual. It is about a 47-year-old man who has lived by the rules and achieved success by the rules, as indicated by the home, the possessions and the way of life demanded by the rules….

Suddenly, the system breaks down for him. The burglarizing junkies who have been terrorizing the city strip his apartment. The unemployment that has been raging through New York's...