David Green, Jon Lutyens and More to Star in Arizona Theatre's THE SUNSHINE BOYS; Full Cast Announced!

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Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) brings Neil Simon's comic masterpiece about show business, friendship and growing old, "The Sunshine Boys" to Arizona audiences. David Ira Goldstein directs one of Neil Simon's most beloved and acclaimed plays in ATC's new production that will premiere in Tucson for three weeks of performances and continue to Phoenix for an additional three weeks. ATC's "The Sunshine Boys" opens at the Temple of Music and Art, running from March 2, 2013 through March 23, 2013. It continues its run in Phoenix at the Herberger Theater Center from March 28, 2013 through April 14, 2013.

"The Sunshine Boys" is a warmhearted tale about Al Lewis and Willie Clark who kept audiences in stitches for decades. Now estranged for eleven years, they are called upon by CBS to agree to reunite for one last TV performance. Past grudges resurface as they prepare to take the stage. Ageing aside, they now must overcome their disdain for one another and perform their most famous sketch one last time. This play has all the ingredients of a classic Neil Simon comedy, melding witty humor and touching truths about friendship and growing older.

"I loved writing The Sunshine Boys," Neil Simon has said, "It was a play that allowed me to be outrageously funny but also dramatic at the same time, because these two old codgers were very poignant to me. They were tragic figures in a way, but they were so funny also. They really didn't know after a while whether what they were saying was funny or was from the act, because they talked in life in the same rhythms that they did in the act for forty-five or fifty years."

Neil Simon (Playwright) began writing as a sports journalist while in the Air Force and within several years began writing television and radio scripts for many popular programs of the day such as "Your Show of Shows," "The Sid Caesar Show" and "The Phil Silvers Show." Neil Simon's plays have been popular and critical successes all over the world for the better part of the past five decades. Simon has received more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. Mr. Simon is the author of more than 30 plays, including "Barefoot in the Park," "The Odd Couple," "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," "California Suite," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "Biloxi Blues," "Broadway Bound," "Lost in Yonkers" and "Laughter on the 23rd Floor." He has written almost as many screenplays, many adapted from his stage plays. His awards are almost too numerous to list, and include the 2006 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor; 1991 Pulitzer Prize for drama; 1989 American Comedy Awards' Lifetime Creative Achievement Award; Tony Awards for "Lost in Yonkers," "Biloxi Blues" and "The Odd Couple;" a dozen additional Tony Award nominations and a 1975 Special Tony Award for overall contributions to the theater; and four Academy and four Emmy award nominations.

David Ira Goldstein (Director) has directed more than 40 mainstage productions for ATC ranging from classics to new plays to musicals, as well as many world premieres including most recently "Next to Normal," and the world premieres of two plays by Jeffrey Hatcher: "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club," and "Ten Chimneys." Goldstein has been a guest director at theatres all across the country including The Pasadena Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Village Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, ACT Theatre, Arizona Opera, Laguna Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Mixed Blood Theatre, and The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. His musical "A Marvelous Party" has played extensively across the US, winning four Jeff Awards in Chicago (including Best Director), the Elliot Norton Award in Boston, several Bay Area Critics Awards and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Production.