Playwright Neil Simon honored with US humor award

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) Playwright Neil Simon, who drew on his New York upbringing to create such Broadway hits as ''The Odd Couple,'' ''Barefoot in the Park'' and ''Brighton Beach Memoirs,'' was honored with the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize as a uniquely American humorist.

Simon, awarded yesterday, has written more than 40 Broadway plays and dozens of film scripts, came to Washington for praise and needling from a slew of actors who read his lines over more than four decades, including Jason Alexander, Richard Dreyfuss, Jane Kaczmarek, Paul Reiser and Christina Applegate.

''There's no good reason to change a Neil Simon line. the day that I'm funnier than Neil Simon, hell will be a very chilly place,'' said Alexander, who starred in ''Broadway Bound'' and ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' in the 1980s.

Simon is the ninth recipient of the award given to those who create humor from uniquely American experiences. It is named for the 19th century novelist, essayist and humorist Mark Twain -- whose given name was Samuel Clemens -- author of the classic novels ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'' The award first went to Richard Pryor in 1998. Other recipients are Jonathan Winters, Carl Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin, Lorne Michaels and Steve Martin.

'STILL WRITING' Simon, the Bronx-bred son of a traveling salesman, became enthralled with Broadway as a boy and went to work in the 1950s as a writer for Sid Caesar's ''Your Show of Shows'' alongside such comic geniuses as Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Carl Reiner.

His first smash hit Broadway play came in 1963 with ''Barefoot in the Park,'' about the trials and tribulations of a newlywed couple and their wacky neighbors in a downtown New York apartment building.

His 1965 Tony award-winning play, The Odd Couple, spawned a film version in 1968 and a popular 1970s television series.

Later works included a highly acclaimed autobiographical trilogy, ''Brighton Beach Memoirs,'' ''Biloxi Blues'' and ''Broadway Bound,'' which chronicle a young New York Jewish man's coming of age, his enlistment in the army in the final days of World War Two and his struggles to break into a writing career.

''By writing about the specific time and place that he grew up in, he managed to write about our whole world,'' said Richard Dreyfuss, who won a best actor Oscar for his performance in Simon's 1977 film ''The Goodbye Girl.'' ''Some say he's the most successful playwright since Shakespeare. Except that he's more prolific and he's still writing,'' said Robert Redford, who starred on stage and screen in ''Barefoot in the Park.'' Simon expressed uneasiness with the hoopla.

''Getting the award is great, but I'm not the kind of person who looks forward to these things. I'm that quiet guy in the back just writing -- that sounds a little too poetic,'' he told reporters.

The ceremony will air on November 20 on PBS television.

Reuters AKJ RS0903