Brighton Beach Memoirs
Portrait of the One-Liner Artist as a Young Man. Eugene Morris Jerome (i.e. 15-year-old Neil Simon) recounts the week in 1937 when his childhood ended. On this large, autobiographical canvas, each member of his extended family has a crisis. As in Chekhov, all are stuck, desperate, as one says, for "a way out." Unlike Chekhov, however, the final hour piles one facile resolution onto another - a forgiveness binge - and they return to a newly revived status quo. What the play and Old Globe production do well: Simon articulates the perplexities of puberty and how they color Eugene's world. Except for speedy, sense-swallowing deliveries, and music that drifts in and out (and often intrudes), the production serves the play quite well. Director Scott Schwartz runs his well-chosen cast up and down the aisles. Austyn Myers makes Eugene an engaging narrator. Ralph Funicello's two-story set (beach-weathered façade and interior) gives the Jerome household an appropriately claustrophobic feel. And Alejo Vietto's costumes pinpoint the period and the family's modest means. Note: Brighton Beach runs in repertory with Simon's Broadway Bound.
Worth a try.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, November 7, 2010
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Tuesdays, 7pm |
| Wednesdays, 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 2pm & 8pm |