Come Blow Your Horn

Come Blow Your Horn (1961), a comedy by Neil Simon. [ Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 677 perf.] Buddy Baker (Warren Berlinger) appears suddenly at the apartment of his brother Alan (Hal March), having run away from their parents' home on his twenty‐first birthday. Like his older brother, Buddy wants the fun and freedom his domineering Jewish parents deny him. Both young men still work for their father (Lou Jacobi) who shows up hot on his son's trail. He is, in his own sarcastic way, understanding: “You work very hard two days a week and you need a five‐day weekend. That's normal.” The rest of the play is essentially a comic family feud, with the father firing his sons, but ultimately taking them back and accepting Alan's choice of a bride and Buddy's desire to live away from home. While complaining that the comedy was repetitive, Louis Kronenberger nevertheless felt, “It did squat head and shoulders above its all too recumbent rivals. It managed to keep going, it had some fresh and funny lines, it had some diverting scenes and characters.” Simon's first produced play, it began a series of successes that marked him as the most knowing light comedy writer of his generation.

For the film adaptation, see Come Blow Your Horn (film).

Come Blow Your Horn
Written by	Neil Simon
Date premiered	February 22, 1961
Place premiered	Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Original language	English
Genre	Comedy
IBDB profile

Come Blow Your Horn was Neil Simon's first play, which premiered in the United States in 1961 and had a London production in 1962 at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Contents 1 Character 2 Act Summaries 3 Summary 4 Film Adaptation 5 External links

Character

• Alan Baker
• Peggy Evans
• Buddy Baker
• Mr. (Father) Baker
• Connie
• Mrs. (Mother) Baker

Act Summaries

Time: The Present
Place: Alan's Apartment in the East Sixties, New York City

Ace 1: Six O'clock in the evening, early fall

Act 2: Immediately After

Act 3 Late Afternoon, Three weeks later

Summary

The play tells the story of a young man's decision to leave the home of his parents for the bachelor pad of his older brother leading a swinging '60s lifestyle. At the beginning of the story Buddy is a 21-year-old virgin and older brother Alan a ladies' man, but as the play progresses Alan discovers real feelings for one of the many women with whom he is currently sleeping when she elects to leave him and he falls apart in response. Juxtaposing Alan's hunger for companionship with Buddy's metamorphosis into a ladies' man himself, the playwright points up the fundamental spiritual and emotional emptiness of the playboy lifestyle for which the younger sibling desperately yearns.

Film Adaptation

The play was made into a film in 1963.

External links

• Come Blow Your Horn at The Internet Broadway Database

v • d • e Neil Simon Plays Come Blow Your Horn (1961) · Barefoot in the Park (1963) · The Odd Couple (1965) · The Star-Spangled Girl (1966) · Plaza Suite (1968) · The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) · The Gingerbread Lady (1970) · The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971) · The Sunshine Boys (1972) · The Good Doctor (1973) · God's Favorite (1974) · California Suite (1976) · Chapter Two (1977) · I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980) · Fools (1981) · The Odd Couple (female version) (1981) · Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)  · Biloxi Blues (1985)  · Broadway Bound (1986)  · Rumors (1988) · Lost in Yonkers (1991) · Jake's Women (1992) · Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993) · London Suite (1995) · Proposals (1997) · The Dinner Party (2000) · 45 Seconds from Broadway (2001) · Rose's Dilemma (2003)  · Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple (2004) Musicals Little Me (1962) · Sweet Charity (1966) · Promises, Promises (1968) · They're Playing Our Song (1979) · The Goodbye Girl (1993)

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