Neil Simon’s beguiling ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ unfolds once more on Broadway

Laurie Metcalf notably portrays a stressed mom in Depression-era comedy-drama

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BROADWAY REVIEW

Crafted by Neil Simon at his bittersweet best, "Brighton Beach Memoirs" returns to Broadway in a lovely new production at the Nederlander Theatre sure to beguile anybody partial to family stories.

Many of you know this justly-celebrated play, right? Simon depicts one eventful week in the life of the Jeromes, a middle-class family struggling to make ends meet in their cramped house in 1937 Brooklyn. Possible unemployment, illness and troubles abroad confront the grown-ups, while their offspring experience the pains — and wonders — of growing up.

Disarmingly told from the viewpoint of gawky 15-year-old Eugene, a would-be writer obsessed with baseball and sex, the semi-autobiographical play is a warm and humorous account of people trying to live through uncertain times. Our present-day circumstances are different, of course, but plenty will recognize parts of themselves or their relatives in the period family portrait Simon affectionately paints.

Amusingly skittering about in the narrator role that launched Matthew Broderick towards stardom in the 1983 original, the skinny, totally winning Noah Robbins makes a very funny, very believable Eugene. So deceptively natural is Robbins' way with the audience — and Simon's droll text — that it's easy to underestimate the excellence of his acting.

Lips pressed tight with worry, Laurie Metcalf gives a deeply-felt performance as Kate, a flinty yet caring woman dealing with an overworked husband, a pair of troublesome sons and a widowed sister in residence with two young daughters of her own. Jessica Hecht portrays her penniless sister Blanche with a sweetly apologetic nature that dissolves into surprising fury when the siblings finally vent their mutual frustrations. A quiet Dennis Boutsikaris characterizes his understanding, beleaguered husband-father figure with a growing sense of physical exhaustion.

Director David Cromer forthrightly stages the play on a two-level setting by designer John Lee Beatty that furnishes the Jerome house with 1930s detail equally threadbare and hospitable.

These very same environs — with a few visual changes marking the passage of a decade — and most of these actors will be employed in mid-November when the producers launch Simon's sequel, "Broadway Bound," which is slated to run in repertory with "Brighton Beach Memoirs." That's the story regarding Eugene and his brother heedlessly using their home life as the basis for a comedy sketch they create as fledgling radio writers. Josh Grisetti, who scored such a success in the 2008 revival of the musical "Enter Laughing," will portray the grown-up Eugene. Can't wait to see it.

"Brighton Beach Memoirs" continues an open-end run at the Nederlander Theatre, 208 W. 41st St., New York. After Nov. 18, the production will play in rep with "Broadway Bound." Call (212) 307-4100 or visit www.TheNeilSimonPlays.com.