Plot Overview
The title refers to the amount of time it takes to walk to Broadway from the play's setting, a coffee shop inspired by one located off the lobby of midtown-Manhattan's Edison Hotel, a long-time diner for "theatre types...prized for its casual atmosphere, inexpensive prices and Matzoh ball soup."
Jackie Mason-like Comedian Mickey Fox is surrounded by an eclectic cast of characters, including the dining spot's proprietor and his wife, an upscale society dame (in search of an intricately double-brewed cup of tea served in fine china on white linen) and her nearly mute husband, a British impresario, a Broadway ingenue, and a South African playwright. Simon's typical one-liners fly fast and furiously throughout the comic first act; his play takes a more serious turn worthy of an Arthur Miller drama in Act II when Mickey's older brother pleads with him to help his son become the comedian he desperately wants to be.
Read more about this topic: 45 Seconds From Broadway
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)