Say what you will about Neil Simon, but there's no denying that he has a real nose for jokes; he doesn't go looking for laughs where they can't be found. So how can one account for "Fools," [an] almost total misfire …? This peculiar endeavor was destined to be fruitless from the moment the playwright dreamed it up. Why the shrewd Mr. Simon plunged ahead anyway is one of the minor mysteries of the Broadway season.

"Fools" is about Kulyenchikov, a mythical Ukrainian village of "long ago" whose residents all live under an evil curse of stupidity. It's a one-gag premise that might make for a dandy 10-minute Sid Caeser-Imogene Coca sketch or a throwaway anecdote in a Mel Brooks-Carl Reiner "2,000-Year-Old Man" routine. But a two-hour play? As one watches Mr. Simon, the director Mike Nichols and a topflight cast struggle to puff up this show, a feeling...