Sonny Boys - Theater in the Josefstadt

The successful duo Willie Clark (Otto Schenk) and Al Lewis (Helmuth Lohner), brought back together by their former manager Ben Silverman (André Pohl) and persuaded to make one last joint television appearance, engage in a love-hate exchange for the audience's favor. However, behind the facade of clever wordplay and cynicism, two men become visible whose long shared history of celebrated performances ends in a vigorous rebellion against aging and in the struggle for dignity and recognition. The plays of Neil Simon, the most successful Broadway author of all time, have been regularly performed at the Theater in der Josefstadt and in the Kammerspiele since the mid-1960s. Simon's comedies are mirrors of the soul landscapes and wish dreams of their main characters, everyday stories of the white, American - mostly Jewish - middle class, whose problems Simon packages ironically and dresses in delightfully multifaceted wordplay. With "The Sunshine Boys," premiered in 1972 in New York and turned into a classic film comedy with Walter Matthau and George Burns, Neil Simon offers entertainment theater at the highest level, with precise punchlines, well-developed characters, and a light-footed yet profound humor. Using the example of a famous but now estranged and bitterly feuding comedy duo, stars of a bygone vaudeville era, it becomes clear what harsh human realities lie behind the seemingly effortless surface of marketed entertainment.

Cast:
Director: Gernot Friedel
Set Design: Rolf Langenfass
Costumes: Eszter Kovasznay
Lighting: Gerhard Breitengraser
Dramaturgy: Isabella Suppanz
Assistant Director: Matthias Croy
Production Management: Rolf Langenfass
Sound: Reinhard Köberl

Willie Clark, comedian: Otto Schenk
Al Lewis, his former partner: Helmuth Lohner
Ben Silverman, his nephew and agent: André Pohl
Nurse: Marianne Nentwich / Hertha Schell / Adelheid Picha
Johanna C. Hohloch
Voice of the Director: Matthias Croy
Assistant Director: Friedrich Schwardtmann / Erich Altenkopf
Patient: Hans Wolfgang Pemmer / Robert Grass