Bijou Productions Presents……
Barefoot In the Park
Palace Theatre, Paignton
13th-16th February
Box Office: 01803 665800 / 522522
www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/paignton/palace-theatre/barefoot-in-the-park
Bijou Theatre Productions is proud to pay tribute to the great Neil Simon, who sadly died last August aged 91.
Neil Simon wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly adaptations of his plays. He received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer
Simon’s first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn (1961) ran for 678 performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. He rewrote the play at least twenty times from beginning to end: “It was the lack of belief in myself. I said, ‘This isn’t good enough. It’s not right.’ … It was the equivalent of three years of college.” That play, besides being a “monumental effort” for Simon, was a turning point in his career: “The theater and I discovered each other.” After Barefoot in the Park (1963) and The Odd Couple (1965), for which he won a Tony Award, he became a national celebrity and was considered “the hottest new playwright on Broadway”.
Bijou Theatre Productions have decided to present his play ‘Barefoot in the Park’ a wonderfully, whimsical, romantic comedy. ‘Barefoot in the Park’ was Simon’s longest running hit and the tenth longest running non-musical play in Broadway history.
Corrie and Paul Bratter are a newlywed couple. For their first home they live in an apartment on the top floor of a brownstone in New York …. with no lift. Corrie is optimistic about their future together while Paul is far more anxious and grounded. He worries about the hole in the skylight, their leaky closet and the lack of a bathtub. Shortly after moving in Corrie attempts to set her mother up with their eccentric neighbour Mr Velasco, with disastrous results. During the course of four days they learn to live together while facing the ups and downs of daily life. Corrie wants Paul to relax and become more easy going, for example to run “barefoot in the park” …. However, heaving everything up several flights of stairs doesn’t encourage much barefoot running.
We are delighted that Jill Pettigrew chose this play for our next production and she will be directing a fantastic cast. We welcome Jo Clark as the young newlywed and Matt Brown as her straight-laced lawyer husband. Along with Sean Aldredge who will be playing Mr Velasco. We are also thrilled that Liz Lee will be making a long overdue appearance as Corrie’s bemused mother, along with the wonderful Colin Baker as The Telephone Man.
This production is just the thing to lift those February blues with its perfect blend of innocence, exuberance and genuine wisdom.
‘Barefoot in the Park’ plays Wednesday 13th to Saturday 16th February 2019 at the Palace Paignton at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01803 665800 or Book Online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/palacetheatre
