Neil Simon might be the most underappreciated “serious”
playwright for today’s audiences. Sure, my
generation knows and loved his plays, many of which have migrated to TV or
film.
Perhaps because they were so entertaining that he is not
often thought of in the same pantheon of our “serious” playwrights such as
Arthur Miller, but by sticking with his characters and extensively drawing on
his own life, he created meaningful drama, capturing the way people think and talk
and experienced angst and love during the 1960s to 1990s. I think of the Brooklyn of Brighton Beach Memoirs in the 1930s and
consider it as dramatically meaningful a place as Grover’s Corners in Our Town at the turn of the
century. Both examine a slice of life so
real that by the end of the play, we know these people and the times in which
they lived. The themes are universal,
but in the case of Simon’s work, he was able to magically weave laugh out loud humor
into his serious dramas.
Time has come, now a couple years after his death at 91,
to reevaluate Neil Simon’s works and polish them off with today’s theatrical
sensibility, and this is exactly what the Maltz Theatre has done with Brighton Beach Memoirs, the first of his
“Eugene Trilogy” his most autobiographical work, which was later followed by Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound.
What makes a great playwright? Simon, in an interview with NPR in 1996, said
‘when I was a young boy - 5 and 6 and 7
years old - my parents would take me to visit their relatives. And for some
reason, I think they thought that I was invisible because they never talked to
me….I could hear, but they were talking family matters - or gossip or whatever.
And I just sat there. And once in a while, they'd give me a cookie or
something. And I just listened. It stuck in my head. And what I managed to
learn was the way they talked, the choice of words they made, what it was that
they were interested in. And years later, without knowing it, when I started to
write about these people, I was able to draw on my own memory from what
happened in those days.”
That in essence is the foundation of this great play, set
in the pre WW II Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn. Because family dynamics are so universal, we
see our own family life and foibles. It
is a coming of age play for Eugene, with all of the other characters
experiencing some harsh lessons too. Most
poignantly portrayed, is America itself, painfully digging out of a depression,
only to be facing the bleak beginning of WW II.
The Maltz production is directed with loving attention by
award-winning South Florida director J. Barry Lewis. He has mined every drop of significance out of
Simon’s intentions and infused this play with laughs all along the way. He is helped enormously by casting one of the
most talented assembly of actors we’ve seen in a long time.
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| Anthony Zambito stars as Eugene |
Anthony Zambito gives an award winning portrait of 15
year old Eugene Jerome, vacillating between his fantasies of pitching for the
New York Yankees, somehow knowing his destiny as a writer, but meanwhile
frequently being sent to the store by his mother for the smallest of
items. “Eugene!” is a constant refrain. Zambito’s enthusiasm on stage is infectious,
frequently breaking the fourth wall, but with a naturalness that makes you know
this person and feel he is talking to you as a friend but from another era. Naturally many in the audience actually
remember those times or at least our parents talking about them. Eugene’s struggle with the joys, vicissitudes
and the wonders of puberty are amusingly portrayed by Zambito.
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| Margery Lowe and Laura Turnbull |
Laura Turnbull is Eugene’s mother, Kate, the quintessential
harried Jewish housewife. She freely
expresses her views, and prejudices, but it is all in the service of protecting
the family she fiercely loves. Turnbull’s
performance is tender and heartfelt, but beneath the veneer, there is a steely anger
that eventually erupts. Her stellar
performance is true to life every moment she is on stage. We sympathize with
her trying to keep the household together on a shoe string budget, especially
after taking in her widowed sister and her two children. She is the enforcer, especially attempting to
keep her two sons on the straight and narrow. Her major worry is her husband, Jack, who works
two jobs to keep his household afloat which also includes Eugene’s older
brother, Stanley.
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| Anthony Zambito and Alex Walton |
Kate’s sister, Blanche, is majestically performed by Margery
Lowe. She exhibits a touching uncertainty
about her future, how she should raise her two teenage daughters, Laurie and
Nora. She is grateful to her sister, but
hates having to be a dependent on an already burdened household. She is inexperienced in dealing with her teenager’s
theatre ambitions as well as with her own lonely life. This role requires a consummate actress and
Lowe delivers.
Daughters Nora and Laurie are played with conviction by
Krystal Millie Valdes and Alexa Lasanta.
Valdes gives a performance that increases some of the tension in the
play, by wanting to break away from the family to pursue a “Broadway career”
and at the same time unconsciously feeding the fantasies of puberty crazed
Eugene.
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| Avi Hoffman and Alex Walton |
Alex Walton as Stanley, Eugene’s older brother, delivers
a strong performance as the son who, right after high school has gone into a soulless
job to bring in that extra paycheck. He wants
his father’s approval, but is still growing up and making youthful mistakes. He also acts as a surrogate father aiding in Eugene’s
sexual education, with many laughs populating the truths which shock Eugene.
Avi Hoffman plays Jack Jerome, the heavily troubled
father, clearly the patriarch of the family, but one with a sense of
justice. When big family decisions are
necessary, the family turns to him.
Excepting his fate, he says "when you inherit a family, you inherit their problems." Hoffman is another extraordinary actor, with a long history of
experience in the theatre. It
shows. His portrayal is so natural and
yet commanding.
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| Krystal Millie Valdes and Margery Lowe |
Scenic design is an integral part of making this
production such a success. Scenic
designer Anne Mundell creates a three tiered stage, the lowest level
representing the outside where some of the scenes take place, the next level
the dining and living area, where most of the action transpires, particularly
the comic dining room scenes (the liver and mashed potatoes scene is a riot,
and rings with truth), and the upper level, where we see two bedrooms, one for
the boys, Eugene and Stanley, and another for their cousins, Nora and Laurie.
Costume designer Tracy Dorman has created splendid period
costumes, perfectly conjuring up the house dresses worn before the war and a
few very colorful ones that brightened up the set. Blanche’s dress, prior to a date, is a stand
out. Lighting design is by Kirk Bookman and
the award-winning resident sound designer is Marty Met.
The Maltz production of Brighton Beach Memoires does
justice to Neil Simon as one of the most important playwrights of 20th
century America.
All photos, except for the
program, by Zak Bennett
