The Dinner Party (play)

The Dinner Party is a one-act comedy written by Neil Simon, about marriage and divorce. This is Simon's 31st play.

The Dinner Party had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, in December 1999 and then ran at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. in June and July 2000.

The play opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on October 19, 2000 and closed on September 1, 2001 after 364 performances and 20 previews. Directed by John Rando, the cast featured Len Cariou (Andre Bouville), Veanne Cox (Yvonne Fouchet), Penny Fuller (Gabrielle Buonocelli), Jan Maxwell (Mariette Levieux), John Ritter (Claude) and Henry Winkler (Albert). The sets were by John Lee Beatty, costumes by Jane Greenwood and lighting by Brian MacDevitt.

Near the end of the run, Ritter and Winkler were replaced by Jon Lovitz and Larry Miller. [1]

Fuller received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

In an interview in The New York Times (as reported by talkinbroadway.com), Simon said that "he was trying to write a play very different from anything he had done before, and that he 'had the concept of creating a farce up to a certain point, and then instead of continuing the farce, to make a turn to where it becomes quite serious. [He] wanted to break the concept that farces can never get real, even for a minute.' "

Playwright Neil Simon, himself married five times, mines his own experience to create the thematic material for this unique farce-turned-dramedy. Six unknowing guests have RSVP'd to a dinner at a private dining room in a first-rate restaurant in Paris. Arriving in a staggered manner, they eventually realize they are three divorced couples--providing the makings of the farce Simon intends the first half of the play to be. Five of them were mistaken into thinking a man they hold in high regard (who happens to be the divorce lawyer) is hosting the party, but he never shows up, and appearances prove to be deceiving.

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