Even the worst of people are not totally useless, as the wag said, they can always serve as a bad example. It’s true of families, as well, n.b., Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Simon’s quasi-autobiographical play is the story of the adolescent Eugene Jerome and his life in Brooklyn in the time just before America entered World War II. Simon has acknowledged that the play is far sunnier than his home life as a youth, but that he deliberately chose to build on what pleasant moments he recalled. That’s fortunate for us because the large household of the extended Jerome family gives us lots of story and plenty of laughs in its current production at the New Jewish Theatre.
The time frame is late in the Depression, and the stress of finances in the blue-collar Jeromes is a key theme in the story. Eugene, or “Euge”, as he’s often called (Jacob Flekier), is about to turn 15, in the throes of typical hormonal storm, and wants to be a New York Yankee or a writer. He’s our narrator through all this, breaking the fourth wall with ease. He shares a bedroom with his older brother Stanley (Spencer Kruse) because his mother’s widowed sister Blanche (Laurie McConnell) and her two daughters have had to move in with the family. Mom Kate (Jane Paradise) runs the house on a shrinking budget and dad Jack (Chuck Brinkley), a garment cutter who works a second job, are stretched thin, both financially and emotionally. The other members of this simmering pot of a household are Laurie (Lydia Mae Foss) and Nora (Summer Baer), Blanche’s daughters, who are, respectively, diagnosed with a heart condition and a fledgling dancer. Everybody has a problem.
Director Alan Knoll gives us a vigorously paced show, things calming down only occasionally as the Jerome house settles in for the night. Flekier’s a good, only slightly gawky adolescent, and the interplay between the brothers is first-rate. Paradise’s strong mother almost never reveals at how close she is to her real wit’s end. As the father, Brinkley is a tired rock of a guy. Widowed sister McConnell tries hard to be strong, but watch her closely to see how fragile she really is.
Pay attention, too, to how much set there is in this black box. Margery and Peter Spack have packed almost an entire house, including two bedrooms with two beds each, into it. It works very well, which means that Michael Sullivan’s lighting design has to be very complex; it’s carried off well.
This story, in other hands, could have been a serious drama. But not with Simon, and we can all relax and have a good time.
Brighton Beach Memoirs
through October 27
The New Jewish Theatre
Marvin & Harlene Wool Studio Theatre
Arts & Education Building
Jewish Community Center
2 Millstone Campus Drive