While some of Neil Simon's plays are not well received by critics, audiences love just about all of them. The Prisoner of Second Avenue, however, earned some strong reviews like the one from Cliff Glaviano in the Library Journal, who writes, “Simon takes a good look at apartment life, career and role reversals, a nervous breakdown, and the love, torture, care, or inertia that somehow keeps a couple in a relationship for many years.” He praises both the style of this “classic American comedy” that “at points” is “laugh-out-loud funny” and filled with “fast-moving dialog with nonstop Simon quips and jokes” as well as its themes, claiming that “it offers sensitive insight into the human condition.”

In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Philip Brandes criticizes “dramatic ironies so broad you could drive a truck through.” He also finds fault with “those relentless one-liners, capping...