Laughter on the 23rd Floor

Hold for Laughs:

Judge Reinhold Makes Rep Debut with Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor”

By MAK MILLARD

The 2022-2023 season is in full swing at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and the hits aren’t slowing down heading into the new year. Kicking off the slate of 2023 shows is “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” a semi-autobiographical comedy by renowned playwright Neil Simon. Running Feb. 1 through 19, the production is a look into the fast-paced, high-stakes writers’ room of the groundbreaking 1950s hit live TV show, “Your Show of Shows.” At the center of the chaos stands “star madman” Max Prince, a character based on vanguard comic actor and sketch comedy legend Sid Caesar.

Taking up the mantle of Max Prince for his Rep debut is another comedy star audiences will be familiar with. Whether you’ve followed him since “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” know him best for “Beverly Hills Cop” or watched him in “The Santa Clause” and “Seinfeld,” Judge Reinhold is probably a face you associate with the silver screen instead of the stage. But Reinhold got his start in theater, and “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” is a welcome full-circle moment from the early years of his career.

“Film, to me, is visual first. Theater is more literary. There’s a simplicity in carrying around a play, learning it and getting up on stage,” Reinhold said. “There’s this moment in live theater, right before the curtain comes up. You’re standing there, and you’re saying, ‘Gosh, I could be bagging groceries right now.’ That idea is suddenly the most appealing thing in the world. But then you go out, and you’re in the story.”

This show in particular is also the perfect combination of opportunities for the veteran actor: to bring Neil Simon’s artistic vision to life, to showcase the caliber of the Repertory Theatre and to perform for his wife Amy’s hometown community.

“I’m fond of Arkansas and its people – especially after spending a lot of time in L.A.,” Reinhold said. “Relationships in L.A. can be so transactional. The people here are friendly without any reason to be. There are a lot of things to appreciate, and I appreciate my family here too.”

The production, and Reinhold’s being in it, comes thanks to Will Trice, the Rep’s executive artistic director and an accomplished theater producer in his own right. The pair connected through a mutual friend, and Reinhold was delighted at the chance to work with the three-time Tony Award winner (“All the Way,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess”).

“I want the community to know the incredible gift they have in Will,” Reinhold said. “He’s this combination of that warmth and friendliness that Arkansans are known for, and then this very skilled understanding of what makes a great play. He gets the best out of the regional actors, but he also supplements productions with talent from New York.”

One such New York talent is director Ari Edelson, whose international career spans from Glasgow to Tokyo. Edelson is the artistic director of the off-Broadway theater company The Exchange. He also runs the Orchard Project, an artistic development workshop whose works have appeared in theaters on Broadway and abroad.

During the early days of the pandemic, Trice and Reinhold went back and forth trying to settle on which production they