This Broadway hit is a composite of Neil Simon and Anton Chekhov.  In one sketch a harridan storms a bank and upbraids the manager for his gout and lack of money.  In another, a father takes his son to a house where he will be initiated into the mysteries of sex, only to relent at the last moment and leave the boy more perplexed than ever, In another sketch, a crafty seducer goes to work on a wedded woman, only to realize that the woman has been in command from the first overture.  Let us not forget the classic tale of a man who offers to drown himself for three rubles.   The stories are droll, the portraits affectionate, the humor infectious and the fun unending.  Samuel French play catalog

A great deal of warmth and humor in his retelling of these Chekhovian tales.  Newhouse Newspapers.

There is much fun here Mr. Simon’s comic fancy is admirable. N.Y. Times.

Neil Simon has established himself as one of the most prolific and beloved playwrights of all time. On Broadway, few contemporary playwrights have seen more success. During the 1966-67 season alone, four of Simon's plays were running simultaneously.
 "The Good Doctor" served as Neil Simon's tribute to Anton Chekhov, arguably one of the greatest writers in Russian history. The play is broken up with adaptations of some of Chekhov's stories, with the common thread of a character called the Writer tying everything together.
 The purpose of a Neil Simon play and the reason most people see one of Simon's works is for the laughter that invariably comes with the experience. Indeed, one of the most refreshing aspects to Neil Simon's writing is that it seems effortless. It seems simple.
 At the price it's being given, it's difficult to turn this experience down. You've got Neil Simon -- who, by the way, wrote such renowned classic comedies as "The Odd Couple," and "Barefoot in the Park." Both of those plays were successful in Hollywood, as well as Broadway.
 You've also got Anton Chekhov. His stories, as represented by Simon, resonate with such feeling and humor that one must assume Chekhov was smiling somewhere in the afterlife during "The Good Doctor"'s premiere performance.
     www.four.net

The Good Doctor, of course, is not a play at all. There are sketches, vaudeville scenes, if you will, written with my non-consenting collaborator, Anton Chekhov. Not the Chekhov of The Sea Gull and The Three Sisters, but the young man who wrote humorous articles for the newspapers to pay his way through medical school. It was a pastiche for me, an enjoyable interlude before getting on to bigger things. It was, to digress for a moment, a joyous experience for me. I met my wife doing this one. Some of the scenes worked; others didn't. The marriage, I'm glad to say, did.
  NEIL SIMON
Los Angeles, Nov. 7th, 1977
(McGovern, 1979)

Time:  1910
Place: Russia

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