Neil
Simon’s 1983 Brighton
Beach Memoirsis an immensely pleasing balancing act. Our most popular
playwright’s first major drama of serious autobiographical content, it deepens
Simon’s previous 22 years of hit gag-fests, yet more than equals their charm
and humor. In these memoirs of the summer when Simon’s extended family shared a
beach bungalow, we get a few changed facts and some slightly prettied-up
realities, but a touchingly honest reflection of both family conflicts and
enduring values and affections.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Geva Theatre
Center’s spiffy new production is beautifully cast and tightly directed by Tim
Ocel to preserve the comedy’s balance of touching reality and hilarious wit,
without a single false note.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Our narrator is
Eugene Morris Jerome, almost 15, in love with baseball and with his 16
ยฝ-year-old cousin, Nora. He dreams of becoming a writer. It is 1937, a few
years before the actual period when Simon and his family lived in Brighton
Beach in the house of his aunt and uncle and their two daughters. In Memoirs, Simon makes the aunt a widow
who lives with her daughters in the Jerome family’s house.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Eugene’s cranky
mother holds the crowded household together. His loving father anchors all the
family’s turmoil with dependable support and wisdom. But the effects of the
Great Depression make it tough for this hard-up, hard-working, Jewish family to
take care of themselves, much less the relatives they pray will escape the war
brewing in Europe and come to them for shelter. Still, from the point of view
of our teenager, the dominant concerns are the Yankees, avoiding an unfair
share of household chores, and sexual awakenings.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Everything in
this perceptive comedy is realistically specific in time and place, but free of
any barriers to our understanding and appreciation. The production is nicely
judged. Erhard Rom’s big, exquisitely detailed set recreates a much lived-in
dwelling that informs us about the people and their era. B. Modern’s costumes
are appropriate enough to help the actors inhabit their characters. Kendall
Smith’s subtle, but complex, lighting unobtrusively underscores the play’s
moods and meanings.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The whole cast is
admirable. Young Eugene is really the toughest role. Never played by a
near-15-year-old, the boy must seem unaware of his own wit, hold our concern,
guide our perspective, and seem all the while to be foolishly funny and boyish.
Dennis Staroselsky does well with all those tasks. After good subsequent stage
and film performances, I’ve come to realize that the extraordinary presence and
magnetism Matthew Broderick originally brought to Eugene were Broderick’s
unique qualities, and not inherent in the role.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Mitchell
Greenberg brings a remarkable, understated authority and decency to the
idealized father (the real father deserted the family when Simon was 14), in
effect portraying the father Simon wished he had. Lori Wilner is wonderfully
persuasive as Kate, the ultimate Jewish mother, managing to avoid stereotype
and be annoyingly nagging without once making us dislike her.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Barbara Sims
brings rich detail to Kate’s edgy sister, Blanche. Ocel continues the tradition
of casting Blanche as a glamorous, decidedly un-Jewish-looking blonde (though
she’s never so described in the script). Bryant Richards gets impressive comedy
and anguish in the slightly underwritten role of Eugene’s brother, Stanley. And
in fairly typical roles (attention-needing, lovely teenager and spoiled brat
younger sister, respectively), Dana Powers Acheson and Kathleen Burke are fine
— though Ms. Burke could use work on vocal projection.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Simon went on to
write richer, more challenging dramas, but in Brighton Beach Memoirs,he created a perennial favorite by
looking back on the formative joys and troubles of his youth with affectionand
compassion. Ocel’s revival keeps those values intact.
Brighton Beach Memoirs,by
Neil Simon, directed by Tim Ocel, plays at Geva Theatre Center, 75 Woodbury
Blvd., through Sunday, February 9. Performances are Tuesday-Friday at 8 p.m.,
Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Special
matinee on Wednesday, February 5, at 2 p.m. Tix: $12.50-$46.50. 232-GEVA
(4382), www.gevatheatre.org.
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2003.
