"The Odd Couple" (the Female Version).
Marvin Neil Simon was born in the Bronx on July 4, 1927, and grew up near Manhattan. He attended New York University briefly (1944-45) and the University of Denver (1945-46) before joining the United States Army. Once in the Army, Simon began his writing career working for the Army camp newspaper. He later took a job in New York as a mailroom clerk for Warner Brother's East Coast office. Here he and his brother Danny began writing comedy revues and eventually found their way into radio and television where they worked with "stars" like Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Larry Gelbart. They began writing for The Phil Silvers Show and Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows. Simon received several Emmy Award nominations for his television writing and then decided to move on to the stage where he quickly established himself as America's most successful commercial playwright. He created a string of Broadway hits beginning with Come Blow Your Horn, Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Sweet Charity and The Star Spangled Girl. During the 1970-71 season, Broadway theatergoers had their choice of Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, and Promises, Promises. Still, praise came slowly for Simon. Even having more smash hits than any other American playwright, critics continued to take pleasure in labeling him as a "writer of gags.".
In 1973, following the death of his wife, Simon reached a low point in his career with two failures The Good Doctor (1973) and God's Favorite (1976). A move to California, however, reinvigorated him and he produced a much more successful play later that year in California Suite. After marrying actress Marsha Mason, Simon went on to write Chapter Two (1977) which was considered by many to be his finest play at that point. His fourth musical, They're Playing Our Song, proved fairly successful in 1979, but his next three plays were all unsuccessful at the box office.
