Your Show of Shows forever shines in the canon of television comedy. From 1950 to 1954 this ingenious, sharp variety show featured Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, et al, in sketches, inspired and silly. When you have writers, top of their game (Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, to name a few, preposterous works just fine. Still thriving, SNL’s airs when nothing else noteworthy is on. By comparison, Saturday Night Live (ranging from inane to superlative) the four year run of Your Show of Shows is criminal.
Lucas (Owen Wildoner) is the narrator and new hire. He embraces apprenticeship with conviviality and grace. Max Prince (Alex Eding) is the frantic, tempestous star of the TV show. The writers include Milt, Val, Brian, Kenny, Carol and Helen, the only women on staff. Milt (Brian Hoffman) is the raffish, class clown, who’s always on, cracking wise no matter how insensitive. Val (Eddy Herring) is the long-suffering, pious head of the team, and a favorite target of Milt. Brian (Joe Barr) is the guy with a pending deal in Hollywood. Ira (Kenneth Fulenwilder) always arrives late, with a new, potentially fatal ailment. Kenny (Christian Black) isn’t as bombastic as the others, but his dry wit delivers. Carol (Molly Bowers) is the only woman at this playground. It’s a lonely struggle, but she’s on the team, and she persists. Helen (Hanna Mancuso) is the front desk assistant, running interference and keeping track of crazy-making demands.
Laughter on the 23rd Floor begins in the third year, when the suits upstairs are wavering on budget, time-slots and payroll. The writers possess a keen sense of chemistry and timing, when it comes to punchlines and a fine sense of the ridiculous. Each brings their particular gift to the script, when they’re not regressing. Seems all these professionals love to take potshots. The atmosphere is boisterous and edgy. Playwright Neil Simon has no problem with material that’s disparaging, crass, tone-deaf and gobsmacking. One delights of Laughter on the 23rd Floor is resistance to aiming high and propriety. It’s intelligent without being pretentious. There’s genuine pathos, there’s rumination and reflection crucial to Simon’s structure and upshot.
Director Leigh Wyatt Moore met this frantic juggling act, this zoo on wheels, with panache and sophistication. As many of you know, comedies are far more difficult, more challenging than drama. The mood-swings, the double-takes, the spitshots, the grotesquely tasteless hilarity. It must be like staving off tigers with a slingshot. Yet Moore carries it off beautifully, without a hitch. The performers fit together with familiarity, inhabiting their roles comfortably. They are dedicated, nimble, intuitive, they invite us to their boisterous, deadpan conflagration, and you’ll be glad they did.
Allen Contemporary Theatre presents: Laughter On the 23rd Floor, playing August 14-30th, 2026. 1210 E Main Street, #300, Allen, TX, United States, 75002. (844) 822-8849 allencontemporarytheatre.net