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Review
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Nederlander Theatre
October 25, 2009
Morgan Wycks
mwycks@nyconstage.org
Although I'm not one who thought Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound needed reviving, it is sad to think that the days of the well-made play and honest-to-God comedies must commercially fail so miserably on the Great White Way. Under the guidance of the director-of-the-moment David Cromer who emphasizes the drama over the comedy, the production of Brighton Beach Memoirs still has plenty of laughs as well as pathos. Though it is not as tight as it could be in that the company doesn't quite mesh as a family, there are individual performances and sequences that are outstanding. As Mr. Simon's stand-in and as his stand-in brother, Noah Robbins and Santino Fontana are quite wonderful. Their scenes spark the most electricity and there's no denying that these two could be brothers. Dennis Boutsikaras as their father does a lovely job of conveying weariness and warmth simultaneously while as their Aunt Blanche, Jessica Hecht also does a lovely job despite sounding like she came from another part of Brooklyn. As the matriarch, Laurie Metcalf stresses the woman's exhausted anger more than anything else which tilts the play in an unusual direction. The love and affection beneath the anger feel like an actress' calculation. Still, she commands the stage like the woman she's portraying commands their household.
The rushed closing of this production and the ironically aborted Broadway Bound confirm the demise of an art form, or perhaps I should say cultural phenomenon (yes, I know it's called show business) where once it could thrive and maintain its special place in the American mind. Without "name" stars or confirmed "raves" from lands elsewhere, the plethora of producers who apparently "produce" by committee will only give the public what it shouldn't want (not that this is a surprise). More and more we will be left with generic and juvenile musicals and the occasional "worthy" transfer. Am I saying that the theatre is dead? No. It's only leading a rather dull life.
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