I adored Linda Lavin‘s simultaneously hilarious and emotionally devastating performance in the Broadway stage presentation of Neil Simon‘s Broadway Bound, which I still regard today as his finest play, hands down.

Lavin played Kate Jerome, the steadfast mother of burgeoning radio-show scriptwriters Eugene (the Simon stand-in, played by Jonathan Silverman) and Stanley (Jason Alexander). She was wonderful — the audience (including myself and my parents, Jim and Nancy, sitting in the third or fourth row) stood and cheered and wouldn’t stop at curtain call.

I would love to watch the 1992 TV movie version right now, but it’s not streaming or even on Bluray, and copies of the DVD are so scarce that it costs $79 a pop on Amazon.

Anne Bancroft played Kate; Silverman and Corey Parker played Eugene and Stanley. Hume Cronyn, Jerry Orbach and Michele Lee costarred.

Lavin passed on 12.29.24. A truly great and wondrous actress — lifted my heart, melted me down.