Neil Simon

Before Monday's rehearsal of Bowie Community Theatre's coming production of Neil Simon's Proposals, director Jerry Gietka mentioned the problem of adding humor to America's wittiest, most successful playwright. Gietka felt the need to bring in two "Mutt and Jeff-type bodyguards" to beef up the comedy whose laughs come mostly from a malaprop-prone Mafioso character. "This is a very difficult script to bring off. It's not a typical Neil Simon play," Gietka said. "This play moves more on the ebb and flow of the dialogue and the changes in mood brought about by changes in feelings among the various relationships.

Neil Simon could hardly go wrong setting "Biloxi Blues" in an Army boot camp during World War II. When young soldiers of various ethnic extractions are thrown together in a hot Mississippi barracks, they can be counted on to fight each other while training to fight the Germans. And between the mess hall and the latrine, there is no shortage of material for one-liners.But the one-liners aren't just facile insults in "Biloxi Blues." They are character based and come directly from Mr. Simon's own youthful experiences.

The Bay Theatre folks know how to throw a great party to announce their coming season and celebrate their past ones. Describing the next year as "a dream of a season," Bay Theatre co-founder and artistic director Lucinda Merry-Browne recently announced the 2005-2006 season - the company's fourth - to a capacity audience seated in the theater. The three-play season opens in October with Sam Shepherd's Fool for Love - a tale of cowboy Eddie's forbidden love for May, who loves and hates him, and is tired of being used.

New York -- YOU KNOW Broadway is dead as a showcase for American drama when a) there are no new plays running there; b) Neil Simon announces he would rather be in Greenwich Village; c) New York's attorney general is closing in on its box offices, or d) the theater industry's leaders are fighting in public, like passengers on the Titanic shoving each other out of the lifeboats.The answer is, e) all of the above.Right now, Broadway is down to two plays -- the sadly inexorable result of production costs so high that only musical spectacles with huge audiences can afford them.

Job may have suffered far more than his share of pain and loss in the Bible's most eloquent ode to patience and unshakable faith, but he's certainly not suffering from neglect. The Mitchell Gallery on the campus of St. John's College is showing about 50 works of art inspired by his story in a fascinating exhibit called The Sweet Uses of Adversity: Images of the Biblical Job. And a few short blocks away, at the Colonial Players' Theater off State Circle in Annapolis, the Capital City's premier theatrical ensemble is offering God's Favorite, playwright Neil Simon's humorous take on the Job story.

'The Marrying Man'Starring Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin.Directed by Richard Rees.Released by Hollywood Pictures (Disney).Rated R.... * I don't know about you, but my idea of fun at the movies is to watch a.) thoroughly repellent characters played by b.) thoroughly repugnant performers in a story that is held together by c.) large gobs of coincidence and d.) bald scenes of emotional emotional bathos unrelated to other issues raised in the plot as narrated in e.) an unconvincing voice-over to bridge the story's boring parts as delivered in f.)

Showtime is promoting "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" by saying, "You can't get a ticket to see Nathan Lane on Broadway, but you can see him on Showtime." The Broadway reference is to Lane's starring role in Mel Brooks' "The Producers," the hottest ticket in the theater world these days. But that's not the only reason to focus the promotion on Lane; his performance in "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" is spectacular. Even if you don't know anything about comedian Sid Caesar and his seminal "Your Show of Shows" - the live NBC program in the early 1950s on which this made-for-cable movie is based - thanks to Lane's performance, you will still understand the man and the way in which network television almost killed him. As an added treat, Showtime is also premiering an 80-minute documentary, "Hail Sid Caesar!

Two neurotic composers hungry for a hit song travel the rocky road of romance in Cockpit in Court's scintillating version of the musical "They're Playing Our Song," being presented on the Mainstage of Essex Community College through Sunday.This snappy, bright and very funny look at the up-and-down relationship between a man and a woman was written by Neil Simon, with grand music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager that incisively reveal the frustrations, longings and hopes of all lovers everywhere.

The ringing of hammers, smell of fresh paint, last-minute lighting cues and actors prowling the set looking for their marks.It's all part of what looks to an outsider like a run for the lifeboats on the Titanic, but actually is a dress rehearsal for Stone Road Productions' latest play, "Rumors."The play opens tomorrow evening at the Stage Door Dinner Theatre, at Wilhelm Limited Caterers, formerly Friendly Farm restaurant, on Route 140, Westminster.This fast-paced Neil Simon comedy unites some very objectionable friends at a 10th wedding anniversary party, where the host and hostess, Charley and Myra Brock, never appear.

The deck may have been reshuffled at WLIF-FM (101.9), but management promises the game is remaining the same.Dick Ireland and Gary Hamilton, the station's morning and afternoon deejays, respectively, were both fired last week. Rumors have been circulating that this is only the first move in a major format change, but that's not the case at all, insists program director Gary Balaban."What has occurred are the changes," says Balaban, promising the music will remain as is. "The station has evolved over a long period of time from being a beautiful-music station to an adult contemporary station, and we felt that this was the time we needed to make a change in mornings and afternoons."