‘Memoirs’ -- Neil Simon’s tells how he got his start

Tom Titus

Ever wonder how Neil Simon got his start? How he happened to

become arguably the world’s most famous, and certainly richest,

playwright?

Huntington Beach’s Academy for the Performing Arts will provide a

little insight into that next weekend when the it presents an

abbreviated four-performance production of Simon’s autobiographical

serio-comedy “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in the Huntington Beach High

School auditorium.

“Many critics have said that ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ is Neil

Simon’s best script,” director Earl Byers said. “Of course, that’s

subjective; however, it’s certainly one of his best.”

Set in 1937, the play follows the teenage Eugene Morris Jerome --

a thinly disguised portrait of Simon himself -- through some pivotal

moments in his high school years, as the playwright is coming of age

in his crowded living quarters in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach section

of New York.

“Brighton Beach Memoirs” was so successful it became the first

episode in a trilogy of plays -- preceding “Biloxi Blues” and

“Broadway Bound.” It centers on the youthful Jerome/Simon and his

older brother (who would be fellow playwright Danny Simon) as they

try to carve out a future in show business.

“Some scenes are quite frank and raise a few eyebrows, but that is

what theater should do,” Byers declared. “What Mr. Simon does, very

poignantly, is to remind us of how naive we were then and how

tolerable and beautiful that was.

“Those were the days when our world was confined to our families

and our schoolmates. We learned so much from them. Today, the media

blitz, a much faster pace, cell phones connecting us in a fraction of

a second, has had its impact on what teenagers and their concerned

parents are exposed to.”

While “Brighton Beach Memoirs” certainly wouldn’t be R-rated by

any standards, Simon did include some material that would be

considered a bit more adult than, say, the incidents in his earlier

“Come Blow Your Horn” or “Barefoot in the Park.” After all, this is a

play about a kid coming of age and discovering the mysteries of sex.

“My cast and I have made a choice, to do this show exactly as

written,” Byers noted. “To do otherwise would be denying part of the

past and editing our social history.”

In the academy production, which runs Nov. 21 through 23 at 7:30

p.m. and Nov. 24 at 2 p.m., Ryan Hill will assume the central role of

Eugene, with Devri Richmond playing his mother, Kate, and A.J.

Guitierrez as the older, more experienced brother Stanley.

Jeff Eberly plays the boys’ father, Jack (except for the Sunday

performance, when the part will be taken by Dillon Vanderschuit),

with Jill Prout as their aunt Blanche (Amy Hollingsworth assumes this

role for the closing performance).

Nora, Blanche’s daughter, will be played by Katie Merrill

(replaced by Cassandra Wallace in the finale), while the part of her

sister Laurie is divided between Nicole Weber (Thursday and Saturday)

and Jenna Pinkham (Friday and Sunday).

Tickets to “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” which start at $5, may be

reserved by calling the academy office at (714) 536-2514, ext. 302.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.