From The Director

Neil Simon’s plays are entirely naturalistic in a time when many others are not. There are no ambiguities or hidden meanings. If a character in Simon’s play says that he’s going to take out the garbage, he means that he’s going to do just that, nothing more. His plays are not big on political or intellectual context. They’re about fundamental human relationships. He leaves deep thinking tragedies to Arthur Miller and social reform to Ibsen and satire to Saturday Night Live. His plays are much like happy dreams. Shortly after you’ve seen it, you can hardly remember a word of it or even what it was about. You’re just left with the lingering impression that you’ve had an exceedingly pleasant experience. Neil Simon is the most prolific Broadway playwright, and we should consider ourselves lucky to have him.

          "The way I see things, life is both sad and funny. I can’t
          imagine a comical situation that isn’t at the same time painful.
          I used to ask myself: What is a humorous situation? Now I ask:
          What is a sad situation and how can I tell it humorously?"
                                    —Neil Simon
 

     God’s Favorite is one of only a few of Simon’s plays that is not autobiographical in nature. He takes the unusual step of contemporizing the Biblical story of the trials of Job. A hard-working, successful, man, faithful to his God undergoes unprecedented tests of his faith. All of us have, at times, questioned our resolve and had to accept with blind faith that things will work out if we could only stay the course. Joe Benjamin, Simon’s modern day Job, does it all while saddled with a well-meaning, but not particularly helpful family, highlighted by a strained relationship with his son that he desperately wants to heal. Simon has taken a poignant, if not sad, story of family relationships and faith and indeed found a way to tell it humorously.
     I have been blessed with a wonderfully talented cast and production crew for my first venture into directing. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with them and confident our objectives have been met---to leave you tonight knowing you have just had an exceedingly pleasant experience.
—Dick Marcott