Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs is one of his most widely respected plays. Simon earned kudos for what many critics consider the best example of his efforts to combine his trademark humor with a level of drama and character introspection. Brighton Beach Memoirs was first produced at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on December 10, 1982. It debuted on Broadway on March 27, 1983, at the Alvin Theatre. Like many of Simon's successes, Brighton Beach Memoirs enjoyed a lengthy run and financial success. The play won Simon the New York Drama Critics Circle Prize for Best Play.
Critics attributed much of the success of Brighton Beach Memoirs to Simon's newfound sophistication. Before this play, Simon had a long career of successful plays that were either comic or serious. His previous attempts to combine the two rarely impressed critics or audiences. Critics praised Brighton Beach for its deft characterizations and meaningful humor. Some attribute this to the fact that Simon knew his material well. Though not strictly autobiographical, Simon based the play on his memories of growing up in New York City in the years just before World War II. Despite the play's success, some critics found Brighton Beach Memoirs superficial, comparing it to a soap opera, albeit one with good jokes.
The success of Brighton Beach Memoirs led to two more plays featuring protagonist Eugene Jerome and his family, 1985's Biloxi Blues, which dealt with Eugene's armed service years, and 1986's Broadway Bound. Each of these plays received more positive reviews and contained more extensive autobiographical material than Brighton Beach Memoirs. With the success of this trilogy, Simon's reputation as a premiere American playwright was cemented.
Brighton Beach Memoirs Summary
Brighton Beach Memoirs opens in September, 1937, in the Jerome household. The Jeromes live in a lower middle class neighborhood in Brighton Beach, New York. It is about 6:30 in the evening and fourteen-year-old Eugene Morris Jerome is playing a semi-imaginary game of baseball outside. As his ball hits the house, Eugene's aunt, Blanche Morton, gets a headache. Eugene's mother Kate yells at her son to stop the game and come inside. Eugene reluctantly comes inside. He tells the audience that he wants to play professional baseball or be a writer. He is sent upstairs, and he begins writing in his journal.
Eugene tells the audience that his Aunt Blanche and his two cousins, Nora and Laurie, live with his family because Blanche's husband died of cancer six years ago. Eugene's father, Jack, has worked two jobs to support everyone for three and a half years. Eugene's writing is interrupted when Kate demands that he come down and set the table instead of Laurie. Laurie has a heart flutter, and Eugene complains that he has to do everything because of his cousin's illness.
As Eugene sets the table, sixteen-year-old Nora comes in and is very excited. She has been offered a chance to audition for a dancing role in a Broadway show. Nora says that the... ยป Complete Brighton Beach Memoirs Summary
Source: Drama for Students, ©2012 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
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