Performance Photos via Kerr County Lead: Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon, Playhouse 200

Set in 1942, Lost in Yonkers centers around Arty and Jay, two boys who must live with their terrifying grandmother and their somewhat simple Aunt Bella when their father takes a travelling job after the death of their mother. As we meet more members of the family, we come to understand the difficulties faced by a (mostly) average family making their way through a world of both pleasure and pain with grit, determination, and the love they share.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991, Lost in Yonkers is among the best plays penned by the incomparable Neil Simon, with both the fast-paced wit for which he is most famous and the depth he only achieved late in his career.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Lost in Yonkers earned the Tony and Drama Desk awards for “Best Play", and was adapted into an award-winning feature film starring Mercedes Ruhl and Richard Dreyfuss.

Neil Simon was one of the most prolific playwrights in Broadway history, with mega-hits like Chapter Two, The Odd Couple and Brighton Beach Memoirs. Among his more than 30 plays – plus 30 more screenplays – Lost in Yonkers was the most awarded, earning four Tony awards and four Drama Desk awards, including “Best Play” in both areas, plus the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991.

The play, which the New York Post called “the best Simon ever wrote,” combines Simon’s famous wit with highly dramatic moments to beautifully capture the humor, conflict and heartbreak of a Jewish immigrant family living in Yonkers, New York, in 1942.

The cast features Bella Richards and Marcus Anderson as “Arty” and “Jay,” the two young sons of “Eddie,” played by J.D. Cole, who are forced to spend a year living with their hard-hearted grandmother in Yonkers so Eddie can work to pay off the debt he incurred tending to their dying mother.

Louise Vermillion plays “Grandma Kurnitz,” whose difficult life has made her far too hard on her children. In addition to Eddie, there is “Louie,” played by Jeff Jeffers, a small-time hoodlum; “Gertrude,” played by Terri Conatore, a neurotic housewife; and “Bella,” the youngest.

Played by Rebekah Remlinger, "Bella" is the focus of the story. Her difficult birth left her with diminished intellect, but her strong desire to find love and life outside of the tiny Yonkers apartment leads her to forge a new relationship with the mother who has treated her like a child for too long.

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Lost in Yonkers
by Neil Simon
Playhouse 2000

March 21 through April 6, 2025

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. (no Sunday performance March 23)

VK Garage Theater, Kerrville

Tickets $24 adults, $15 children,  available HERE