Cast members Jesse Olson, Ryan Odor and Beth Odor try to ignore fellow cast mate Renae Buss who plays Ira in the Le Mars Community Theatre’s production of “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.” The play opens April 4 at the Postal Playhouse.

LE MARS — Get ready for some laughs as the Le Mars Community Theatre presents “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” beginning April 4.

Playwright Neil Simon got his first big break in the early 1950s as a staff writer on Sid Caesar’s fabled television series “Your Show of Shows,” and this comedy takes a fictionalized look at the backstage chaos that went into producing one of the landmarks of television’s golden age.

Max Prince, played by Bob Hill, is the star of The Max Prince Show, a popular comedy-variety series that is a major hit on the East Coast, but the network executive insists it’s too sophisticated for the Midwest, and urges Prince to dumb down his act.

Between the tensions of producing an hour of top-quality comedy each week and being pestered about his ratings, Prince is beginning to unravel. His last line of defense against the network and the ratings are his writing staff, which spends its days coming up with business for the show while hurling humorous invective at each other and anyone else within earshot.

Keeping up a running commentary on the writing, fighting and wacky antics is Simon’s alter-ego Lucas Brickman, played by Jamie Hauser.

Making his directing debut is stage veteran Jeff Neary.

“I made the decision to direct a comedy show and a Neil Simon one is almost always a good choice. I read the script and got input from the board members who had read it as well and then decided to select it,” Neary said.

“This show takes place in 1953 on the 23rd floor of a building in downtown New York. It is right in the middle of the red scare and the McCarthy era with regard to communism. That discussion provides the show. It is a takeoff of the Sid Cesar show from the early 50s and it takes place in the writers room for the Max Prince show. Max is a forgetful but funny main character,” he said.

Neary explained a little more of the storyline.

“The show is primarily about a struggle of a group of people to confront and deal with change in broadcasting and the tastes of their audience as well as audiences in general for TV shows and media programming at the time but is clearly relevant today with regard to media consumption,” he said.

One of the supporting characters is Ira, played by newcomer Renae Buss.

“Interestingly, the character of Ira in the show is originally expected to be a male. Ira is a hypochondriac and is very comedic in the lines in the delivery of that character.

“I’ve decided to have Renae Buss be cast as a rock and we decided of course to have her be a female character but the main character Max can never remember much and tends to think that Ira is a male and refers to her as such and the rest of the cast knows and refers to her as a female,” Neary related. “Renae fit this unique character setting and she has turned on her wonderful charm in becoming the character of Ira.”

“I always loved theater,” Buss said but marriage and children became her priority. “I didn’t feel I wanted to take time from my kids’ events.”

Last summer, she connected with Jennifer Scholten, a LCT board member and a high school friend, and talked about Buss returning to the stage.

“She told me everybody is fabulous in the Le Mars Community Theatre and if you’re going to start, that is the place to start. I talked to a couple of my good friends, and they encouraged me to try as well,” Buss said.

“Renae fit this unique character setting and she has turned on her wonderful charm in becoming the character of Ira. She told me that when she retired she wanted to do two things: spend more time with her horses and get back on stage. This will be a wonderful debut for Renae and I am certain the audience will love her. She has been a joy to work with and she is very creative as are all the rest of the characters and cast but they have different roles to play and they are all doing quite well. As a first time director I am very pleased with my cast.”

Neary said there are five cast members new to the Postal Playhouse stage.

“A couple have prior experience but not on our stage and many of them have not been on a stage for quite a long time. We do also have a few regulars that continue to delight audiences for shows that we’ve had in the past and they’ve decided to come back once again and thankfully so,” Neary said.

Ryan and Beth Odor are making their debut with Le Mars Community Theatre in this production as well.

Beth plays one of the writers, Carol.

“Carol is breaking barriers by being a woman in a writing room for a variety show,” Beth said. “Carol is confident and right where she knows she can be her best.”

Beth likes that the play is so funny.

“Even after weeks of practice we are still laughing. Even finding new jokes to laugh about,” she said.

While new to the Postal Playhouse stage, Ryan has been a part of more than 20 productions in his life.

He plays the part of Milt Fields, who he says is a smooth talker with a quick wit who has a joke for every occasion.

“I’d wanted to audition for a show ever since Beth and I moved to Hinton almost two years ago,” Ryan said. “I’ve played similar characters in several productions in the past, and some might say it’s a bit of a ‘type’ cast. So, it was pretty easy to become Milt.”

Ryan added, “I love how quick the show moves from one joke to another, and it’s been so much fun meeting and acting with new people.”

Other cast members are Jesse Olson, Hilma Person, Aaron Hauser and George New. Joe Ouradnik is the producer.

Production dates are are Monday, April 4 through Sunday, March 10, with evening shows at 7:30 p.m., and the Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.

Reservations may be made at the box office from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday, by calling 546-5788, or at Lemarslive.org.