‘Brooklyn Boy’ casts harsh light on success

Tom Titus

One of the first pieces of advice young authors receive is “Write

what you know.” In Donald Margulies’ new play, “Brooklyn Boy,” this

can be a blessing and a curse -- a blessing for the playwright, whose

latest work, a world premiere at South Coast Repertory, is bound for

Broadway, and a curse for his frustrated protagonist.

“Brooklyn Boy” has to be an excruciatingly personal play, since it

mirrors both Margulies’ geographic and spiritual backgrounds and his

own Pulitzer Prize-winning success. His central character is a

novelist who finally hits it big by returning thematically to his own

turf -- which is when his troubles really begin.

Eric Weiss -- and the Houdini link is not coincidental -- has just

hit the best seller list (at No. 11) with his latest novel, also

titled “Brooklyn Boy,” and you’d think he’d be in hog heaven. But his

father, with whom he’s had self-confidence issues, is dying of

cancer, and his wife is divorcing him. Throw in an old friend from

the neighborhood, who’s accusing him of turning his back on his

Jewish heritage, and success begins more and more to seem like a

two-edged sword.

And, if you think it’s rough in his own backyard, wait until Eric

hits Hollywood, where smarmy superficiality reigns supreme and his

story is deemed “too Jewish” for cinematic consumption. The audience

will share every aching moment of his discomfort when he “takes a

meeting” with an agent and a potential star of the movie version.

Adam Arkin inhabits the role of Eric as if born for the

assignment. Arkin endures more than two hours of personal and

professional tribulation before finally unleashing his frustrations

at the expense of his dead father and his boyhood buddy. And he’s

every bit as adept at pained endurance as he is at aggressive

performance, allowing us access to his soul as the comic tension

mounts.

As his hospitalized father, who later visits him in spirit as the

play winds down, Allan Miller counters Arkin’s intellectual thrusts

with “ordinary” parries, which inevitably draw emotional blood.

Miller’s explanation for his lifelong irascibility, in his second

appearance, doesn’t really hold water, but it serves Margulies’ plot

sufficiently.

Arye Gross achieves the show’s most “natural” characterization as

Eric’s onetime pal whose devoutness to Judaism contrasts with Eric’s

rejection of the faith. Gross projects moving conflict within the

bounds of friendship, a difficult level to attain.

As Eric’s wife -- who’s ostensibly divorcing him for no other

reason than because he succeeded in a literary career and she didn’t

-- Dana Reeve presents an emotionally insecure character who’s

impressive precisely for conveying this weakness so convincingly. Ari

Graynor deliciously portrays a young Hollywood airhead who would

promptly bed down with the writer she meets at a book signing, if he

didn’t consider the prospect so ludicrous.

The Hollywood contingent lapses into parody -- Mimi Lieber as a

high-powered agent bent on emasculating Eric’s novel and Kevin Isola

as a vacuous TV star anxious to inhabit Eric’s hero on the screen, a

prospect that just about sends the author over the edge. This is

familiar territory that’s perennially ripe for satire, and Margulies

skewers it mercilessly.

Director Daniel Sullivan has fleshed out the characters in

“Brooklyn Boy” with meticulous detail, and Ralph Funicello has

designed a superb series of scenic backdrops, including a towering

Brooklyn apartment building that serves as an emotional anchor, while

Chris Parry’s lighting and Jess Goldstein’s costumes serve their

project splendidly.

One note for playwright Margulies: “My Gun is Quick” was the

follow-up to “I the Jury,” not vice-versa, something that old Mickey

Spillane fans will catch right away. Otherwise, a hearty thumbs up

for this Broadway-bound “Brooklyn Boy.”

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.