By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO— Neil Simon and The Old Globe have had a good working relationship over the years. There was a time when Simon tried out some of his new works (Jake’s Women, Rumors) before taking them to Broadway. Last year Executive Producer Lou Spisto announced that The Old Globe would be paying tribute to the classics, singling out Simon as the choice this year.
At the beginning of the year the theatre produced Simon’s Lost In Yonkers in January, kicking off the official opening of the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. (It replaced the Cassius as the theatre in the round) Running in repertory now through November are two of Simon’s double B plays, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound (the third Biloxi Blues fits neatly between the two).
They are semi autobiographical (several of his others are as well) and give audiences a peek into his growing up years in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY in a middle to lower class Jewish family struggling to keep their heads above water.
Skipping over his years in the Army (Biloxi Blues) was a wise move on Spisto’s part and cutting through to his and his brother’s career breakthrough as scriptwriters for the Robert Q. Lewis Show and the Phil Silvers show before being tagged to write for Sid Caesar and ‘Your Show of Shows’ as played out in Broadway Bound giving more insight to Simon’s rise to fame.
At the heart of each play is Simon’s alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome played to perfection by Austyn Myers (in Brighton Beach Memoirs) who was so on target in Lost In Yonkers that he truly deserves a second look as a smart up and coming actor to be reckoned with. His older brother Stanley is played somewhat convincingly by Sloan Grenz in Brighton Beach Memoirs and a more in line with what we expect a Stanley to look like played by Joseph Parks in Broadway Bound.
Eugene/Myers narrates us through his families and his own mishigases from his family taking in his mother Kate’s (Karen Ziemba) sister, Blanche (Bonnie Black) and her two daughters, Laurie (Julia Vanderiel) and Nora (Allie Trimm) because their husband and father died to their father Jack Jerome (David Bishins is more than credible) working two jobs to keep the family afloat.
Brighton Beach takes us back to 1937 just before the outbreak of WW II. The Jews are being led to the camps, war is about to break out and Eugene is fifteen. He knows already he wants to be a writer if he doesn’t play shortstop for the New York Yankees.
As he talks to the audience about his trials and tribulations, he is writing his memoirs as well. The inside look we get of his take on the Jerome family and their eccentricities is filled with humor and pathos as seen through the eyes of a fairly self centered teen aged boy just learning to navigate, with his older brother’s help, through his puberty years and then some.
Set on Ralph Funicello’s wonderful take on the Jerome two-story home with bedrooms and bathroom upstairs and kitchen, dining and living rooms downstairs and a small playing area on the side and in front where Eugene does his second favorite thing, playing baseball, is used in both shows with few changes as the years advance on to 1949 in Broadway Bound. His and Alejo Vietti period costumes place the year exactly right on target.
Director Scott Schwartz and his versatile cast bring much credibility to most of the characters even though some of Simon’s peeps are pretty much left to dangle. Bonnie Black’s Blanch is a too much of a kvetch with not many redeeming features especially in Brighton Beach Memoirs. She comes alive for a brief moment, before her disappointment, when the neighbor across the street asks her to dinner.
That the story is pretty well worn, doesn’t take away the humor and the clever writing Simon delivers to us, though. There are some pretty funny moments in Brighton Beach Memoirs; they are just a little old by now. It is probably one of Simon’s most produced plays.
Karen Ziemba and David Bishins play well off each other as the parents especially in Broadway Bound when the family unit seems to fall apart as Jack has an affair, Blanche comes into some money, the girls leave the Jerome home, Kate chooses to stay home and suffer in silence, their grandfather (Howard Green is a hoot) is now living with them because he can’t live with his wife in Florida and the boys are about to venture on their own.
Eugene’s two cousins Laurie and Nora add minor drama in “Brighton Beach” with Laurie being the ‘sick’ one and everyone fetches for her and Nora wanting to be an actress and tries to run away with ‘an older man’. It’s more of the same over and over again becoming Johnny one-note characters. Both young women are San Diegans who do their best with lesser rolls.
It is in Broadway Bound however that the family has a coming to reality moments with each other. They are all older, wiser and communicate with each other on a more mature level. Toward the end of Act II we see Kate and Eugene dancing together in a beautiful time. It’s a minute when her guard is let down and she reflects about an event in her life when she was younger and danced with George Raft at the Paradise Ballroom.
The scene brings both tears and smiles of pleasure for a woman whose life is now devoid of dance, who was dedicated to her family, as so many of that era were and are reduced, by her own choice in this case, to living alone after everyone grows up and leaves the homestead.
Each show has redeeming qualities both in the performances of Parks, Bishins, Uranowitz, Myers and Ziemba and Simon’s quick-witted writing style. I recommend seeing both, either on the same day (there are some performances playing in repertory) or separately to get a feel for the playwright. You will laugh, cry and remember.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: September 14th –November 7th / in Repertory
Organization: The Old Globe
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type:
Where: Balboa Park at 1363 Old Globe Way
Ticket Prices: $29.00-$85.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
Venue: Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
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Theatre critic Davis is based in San Diego