Description
Same Time, Next Year is arguably the most successful romantic comedy ever to grace the stage. Most people think that it was written by Neil Simon. It wasn't, of course. It was penned by one of Canada's most successful playwrights and scriptwriters, Bernard Slade, who recounts this and many other hilarious anecdotes in his infectiously readable memoir, Shared Laughter. Born to British parents in central Canada, Slade split his childhood between Britain and Canada. Trained as an actor, he began with the Crest Theatre in Toronto before striking out for Hollywood where, as a writer, he left his mark on some of the most successful TV comedy of the era. In his Burbank years, Slade was responsible for the development and writing of The Partridge Family, The Flying Nun and Bewitched, among many others. But in 1974, with the surprise hit of Same Time, Next Year, Slade returned to his first love - writing for the stage. He went on to write Tribute and a number of other successful (and some unsuccessful) plays. Here, in Shared Laughter, he gives us the highs and lows of production and fame, the people he has known and his fascinating insights into the art of writing comedy. We meet Jack Lemmon and Ellen Burstyn, Alan Alda and Bea Arthur. We are taken to the nail-biting jitters of a Broadway opening and shown the brutal opportunism that is Hollywood. Along the way, we are treated to witty and wicked anecdotes of people and their foibles, famous and obscure. Great show-biz memoirs rarely come along. This is one of them.