A Story That Makes Moxie Almost Like Neil Simon

From today's Manhattan Users Guide:

Years ago, when a musical was in trouble, a ‘show doctor’ was discreetly brought in to fix things. Neil Simon and Michael Bennett were two of the most reliable fixers back in the 1960s and 70s. They even worked on each other’s shows. Simon notably contributed some big laughs – "committing suicide in Buffalo is redundant" – to help warm up A Chorus Line (a hit again in its current Broadway revival). However, you may not know why ‘Doc’ Simon agreed to work for free. Just a few years before, Bennett secretly helped out on Simon’s aptly-named The Good Doctor and was then asked to direct God’s Favorite – Simon’s first flop. When Bennett began work on Chorus Line soon after, Simon owed him a big favor.

This has always been one of our favorite lines, especially having spent more time than anyone should ever spend in the snowy hell-frozen-over central/western New York area.