Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys"

FOR RELEASE August 27, 2024

Contact: Julie Gilliland, Director of Marketing, jgilliland@beckcenter.org

Beck Center for the Arts Announces Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys

Lakewood, OH–Beck Center for the Arts is pleased to produce Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys kicking off the 91st theater season, on the Senney Theater stage.

Al and Willie, as “Lewis and Clark” were top-billed vaudevillians for over forty years... now they aren’t even speaking. When CBS requests them for a “History of Comedy” retrospective, the grudging reunion brings the two back together, along with a flood of memories, miseries, and laughs. Theater critic Clive Barnes, reviewing the original Broadway production wrote, “The Sunshine Boys is probably Mr. Simon's best play yet. It deals with a subject very dear to the playwright's heart—vaudeville.”

Directed by Beck Center favorite, William Roudebush, the cast includes the role of Willie Clark performed by Alan Safier*. Al Lewis is played by Rohn Thomas*, Ben Silverman is Doug Sutherland. The Director Voice/Vaudeville Patient in this production is Morgan Mills, with Asst. Director (Eddie) played by Carson Betts. The Vaudeville Nurse will be Carolyn Demanelis, and the Registered Nurse is Joyce Bell Linzy. Actors’ Equity Members are identified with an asterisk.

Artistic Director Scott Spence says, “Beck Center is always striving to bring a great balance to our theater audiences. Comedy and drama. Musicals and non-musicals. The newest plays, and the classics as well. Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys most certainly checks a few boxes as it is undeniably one of the funniest comedies written in the past 75 years, as well as being what could be called a certified classic! Neil Simon began sharpening his comic writing chops during Sid Caeser's Your Show of Shows on television of the 1950s. He was in on the ground floor of modern comic playwriting, yet Neil Simon's most prominent works are indeed modern classics. Classics have endured and will endure for centuries, much as Shakespeare and Moliere have. Simon's work is always a worthwhile venture to remind audiences that sometimes just pure entertainment is the focus of that rare evening out. We're thrilled to share it as we open our 91st season at Beck Center.”

Tickets for individuals and groups (of thirteen or more) are on sale at 216-521-2540 and beckcenter.org. The Sunshine Boys runs in the Senney Theater September 13 to October 6, 2024 with THURSDAY performances September 26 and October 3, 2024. Produced with special arrangement with Concord Theatricals.

"It's ham on wry [...] Simon's sure-footed craftsmanship and his one liners are as exquisitely apt as ever."—New York Post

"Delicious and oddly affecting."—The New York Times

All performances are at theaters inside Beck Center for the Arts located at 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, just ten minutes west of downtown Cleveland. Free onsite parking is available. For more information visit beckcenter.org.

Beck Center for the Arts is proud to be a part of Northeast Ohio’s professional theater landscape, operating under a letter of agreement with Actors’ Equity Association. We are a Small Professional Theater (SPT) based on the number of seats, number of our performances, and the maximum weekly hours of work we provide to actors. We produce every show on our stages, by choosing the play, casting and rehearsing it, building the sets, props, and costumes, directing and performing the live music, and designing lights and sound. We proudly utilize regional resources and talent.

Beck Center for the Arts also offers arts education for all ages, all skill levels, and all abilities with classes and lessons in music, dance, visual arts, and theater, as well as creative arts therapies. Financial assistance is offered to qualified applicants so that these programs can be enjoyed by all.

Programming at Beck Center for the Arts is made possible through the generous support of the Ohio Arts Council. Beck Center gratefully acknowledges the generous funding provided by the citizens of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

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Beck Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that offers professional theater productions on two stages, arts education programming in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, and creative arts therapies for individuals with disabilities, free gallery exhibits year-round, and outreach education programming.

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