on its author also pronounced thatn”after decades of acclaims as a craftsman,nNeil Simon may finally come tonbe regarded as an artist.” If nothingnelse, the very fact that Time has declarednBroadway Bound the best playnof the 1980’s makes it so. Time is, afternall, not in the dubious business ofnreporting on history, but creating it asnwell. Still, the disposition of an artistnremains beyond the powers of evennLuce’s empire.nIn the parlance of more thoughtfulncircles, Neil Simon has been viewednfrom the beginning of his career as anmaster craftsman, but no more. Thesensame “thinking” people acknowledgenthat he is the most successful, the mostnpopular of contemporary playwrights—nindeed and as far as can bentold, in the history of the genre. Onenof the more portable contentions fornhype even conjectures that more peoplenhave seen Simon’s works than havenseen Shakespeare’s. But until recently,nand aside from his lone champion innWalter Kerr, the critics as well as thenmore pretentious theatergoers remainednunimpressed.nHistory may not be on their side.nThe oversimplified logic of the snobnfails to recognize that Shakespeare wasnthe most popular dramatist in his day.nSophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, andnPlautus were hardly elitists, either.nEven Ibsen and Chekhov, after hurdlingnsome early obstacles, achievednsignificance and attention long beforentheir oeuvres were completed. HenrinTroyat notes of Chekhov’s reception:n”The pattern was familiar: most ofnChekhov’s plays had received guardednif not hostile reviews before making ansudden hit with the public.” The samen”pattern” perfectiy describes Simon,nwho over the years apparently hadnbeen punished for his very popularity.nThe comparison is not entirely irrelevant.nOver the years, critics whonwanted to give Simon the benefit ofnthe doubt have frequently invokednChekhov’s name. However ludicrousnthe comparisons, both Chekhov andnSimon have found a tension betweenncomedy and tragedy. In his oeuvre tondate, Simon has been most misunderstoodnto the extent that he has beenndismissed as being exclusively a comedicnwriter. Where Chekhov andnSimon differ most sharply is in theirnoutiook: Chekhov’s more farcical im­npulses remained relentlessly pessimistic;nSimon, who in some respects cannbe as tragic as Chekhov, cannot avoidnbeing more hopeful. (Perhaps the differencenis geographical—the RussiannSteppes versus the American Plains?)nFor Simon, the comedy is cathartic, anrelease from the daily burdens of thendeath in life. For Chekhov, the ennuinis inescapable—we sense that even ifnThe Three Sisters made it to Moscowntheir mood would eventually prevailnupon their new circumstances, andnnot the other way around.nThe comparison has never seemednas valid as it does today with two of thenthree plays in his new autobiographicalncycle — specifically those thatnoccur in the Jerome family home. InnBrighton Beach Memoirs especially,nthe presence of the extended familyn(which finds Aunt Blanche and herntwo daughters living with her sisternKate—Mrs. Jerome) within the Jeromenfamily seems to directly echo thenChekhovian mode. At the end of thenplay, the expected arrival of countiessncousins from Poland, to escape thenHolocaust, only adds to the Chekhoviannfeeling.nThe one thing Simon has alwaysnwanted was the one thing he lacked—ncritical respect. As if his already busynmuse were suddenly working overtime,nall of that has changed duringnthe past three years with his alliterativentrilogy of plays. Beginning with BrightonnBeach Memoirs, which won thenimportant New York Drama CriticsnAward for best play in 1983, pickingnup momentum with Biloxi Blues, fornwhich Simon received his first TonynAward in 1985, and now culminatingnwith Broadway Bound, which openednlast December (the same month thatnthe film version of Brighton Beach wasnreleased), Simon has emerged as onenof the most praised American playwrightsnin the history of Americanntheater. Although the scholars havenyet to catch up with the new appraisals,nthe more academic encomiumsnANTITRUST POLICY IN AnFREE SOCIETYn’-..-y^y-p. ^9^:^^^;^^nc^S?^”n•r’-nJoseph D. ReednDavid C. Button andnTim OzennenYale BrozennDominicl< T. ArmentanonF. M. Sciierern$5.00 PAPERBOUNDnWrite for our free catalog. All orders include ancomplimentary subscription to monthlynImprimis essay series.nHILLSDALE COLLEGE PRESSnHillsdale, Michigan 49242nnnMARCH 1987 / 4Sn