I ragazzi irresistibili

The two protagonists of the comedy by Neil Simon, rightly judged one of the greatest American writers of the last fifty years, are two elderly variety actors who have worked as a couple all their lives, creating a duo that has become famous as “The Irresistible Boys” and who, after separating due to irreconcilable misunderstandings, are called upon to reunite, eleven years later, on the occasion of a TV show that wants them together, for one night only, to celebrate the history of the glorious American variety show. On stage, we see the two old actors with their different personalities trying to mend the rift that separated them for so many years in an attempt to revive a comic number that made them famous. Old misunderstandings reappear more deeply rooted and this difficult alchemy is the pretext for a play of brilliant comedy and profound melancholy. Certain exchanges of jokes and hilarious situations are a source not only of comedy, but also of profound tenderness for the world of the theatre, which shows all its human frailty when its protagonists are on the road to decline. Umberto Orsini and Franco Branciaroli come together to revive this text, which in recent years has become a classic; become a classic over the years, in an attempt to capture everything that makes it closer to the theatre of a Beckett (The Endgame) or even to a Chekhov (The Swan Song) rather than to a work of pure entertainment. In this homage to the world of actors, to their small and delightful foibles and tragic miseries, they are accompanied by the direction of Massimo Popolizio, who finds in the two protagonists those companions on the road with whom he has shared so many of the most intense and significant experiences of theatre in recent years.

Inspired by the lives of a famous vaudeville couple, Joe Smith and Charles Dale, Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys debuted on Broadway in 1972, directed by Alan Arkin. Numerous successful theatrical productions took place in the following decades all over the world and, with the author's screenplay, the award-winning 1975 film version directed by Herbert Ross, starring Walter Matthau and George Burns. The 1995 US small screen adaptation starring two top stars: Woody Allen and Peter Falk.