Brighton Beach Memoirs Broadway Reviews
What Critics Thought Of Brighton Beach
BROADWAY MAGAZINE - Last night, the new Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs opened. This morning, Broadway Opening Night critics have begun to publish their reviews of the production. An examination of 12 opening night reviews yields some insight into the production. Did the critics like director David Cromer’s production of Neil Simon’s beloved comedy? In a word, “yes.” Collectively, reviewers were positive about this production in nearly every facet. Most reviewers noted the strong cast (particularly newcomer Noah Robbins), reviewers also noted that Cromer’s direction preserves the humor, but emphasizes the other dimensions of the story as well. Though multiple critics felt that Brighton Beach Memoirs as written is not canonical, this production feels effective and fresh, even given its sentimental qualities.
Three Key Take Aways From Opening Night Reviews of Brighton Beach Memoirs
- Noah Robbins -All critics gave particular attention to the exceptional performance by Noah Robbins. Spontaneous and truthful, Noah Robbins performance has earned those rare kinds of positive notices that come only once in a decade or so. A star-making performance of the rarest kind.
- Cromerfied Simon - Critics also were consistent in recognizing the unique nature of director David Cromer. Though the tone of Neil Simon comedies are often dictated by a desire to get laughs, Cromer has augmented the one-liners with an added dimension of reality. The humor is not muted in the production, but it is also not in the spotlight. Cromer has made a label for himself dusting off American classics and unearthing a particular classics authentic core. Critics loved this Cromerfied version of Simon’s comedy.
- All In The Family - The theme of family runs through Brighton Beach Memoirs, and most critics felt that dimension was solid in this production. However, a few critics felt that some performances lacked an authenticity of ethnicity that would have made the production more effective.
Should You See Brighton Beach Memoirs On Broadway?
Yes, especially if you like Neil Simon, comedy, family, Noah Robbins, Depression Era stories, jokes, star-making performances, Brighton Beach, coming-of-age stories, families, baseball, squabbles, dinners, one-liners, David Cromer, realism, nostalgia, and positively reviewed productions.
Opening Night Broadway Reviews of Brighton Beach Memoirs
As Eugene observes, love and loathing are inextricably linked in family relationships. If that paradox feels only fitfully real in this production, it achieves affectingly vital life whenever the squabbling, interdependent Jerome boys take to their room. -Ben Brantley, New York Times
Cromer unlocks a big-hearted and aptly autumnal drama about the agonies of parenting, the rewards of loving your brother, the hopes and desires of youth, the confounding difficulty of keeping food on your extended family’s table in 1937, with the world on the cusp of war. -Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
Simon’s unabashedly sentimental account of all this is not the kind of stuff that gets deconstructed in college literature courses. Still, with the right combination of comic panache and gentle insight, it can be extremely winning - and this cast, lovingly directed by David Cromer, has both qualities in spades. -Elysa Gardner, USA Today
You could call “Brighton Beach” a comedy-drama, a play peppered with amusing, often jokey dialogue alternating with poignant moments of personal confrontation and reconciliation. Yet the disconnect is not as disruptive as it could be thanks to David Cromer’s smooth, seamless direction and an accomplished cast. -Michael Kuchwara, AP
This mainly well-acted production is a more sober rendition than the original 1983 Broadway staging, which starred Matthew Broderick and ran for more than three years. While not neglecting the laughs, this is a harsher, darker version that might not prove as crowd-pleasing. -Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
If this revival works at all — and mostly it does — it’s largely thanks to director David Cromer and his cast. In last year’s “Our Town,” Cromer stripped away decades of saccharine to reveal an Americana imbued with both joy and melancholy dignity. - Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post
And here, even when Cromer must embrace the occasional over-jokiness of Simon’s mostly heartfelt script, he wisely downplays the work’s sitcom-like qualities to focus on the human drama. In the production’s best moments, there’s a sense that we have dropped in, unobserved, on an endangered species in their natural habitat. -Brian Scott Lipton, Theatremania
What the evening sorely lacks is aromatic Jewish-American inflection and idiomatic gesticulation, somewhat deficient even in the original production, presumably from fear of being mistaken for patronizing caricature, instead of recognized as leavening authenticity. -John Simon, Bloomberg
Making his Broadway debut, Robbins is better than Jonathan Silverman, who had the role in the 1986 film version. His timing is perfect. His physical comedy is on-point from fidgeting at the table, to running across the stage. -Alan Zeitlin, NY Blueprint
The Depression-era struggles of this Brooklyn family certainly resonate today and the combined pathos and pitch-perfect humor will have audiences laughing and crying. -Roma Torre, NY 1
The jokes of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” are still very funny, there are still many touching moments, the mixture of drama and comedy is still sometimes awkward. -Jonathan Mandell, The Faster Times
Cromer’s accomplishment is to assert some of the work’s other qualities, to strike a balance between its wiseacre veneer and its aspirations to poignancy. He does allow the actors their fair share of robust laughs — particularly Robbins, in the role that once made a star of a young Matthew Broderick. -Peter Marks, Washington Post
Tags: Alan Zeitlin, AP, Ben Brantley, Bloomberg, Brian Scott Lipton, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Chicago Tribune, Chris Jones, Elisabeth Vincentelli, Elysa gardner, Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter, John Simon, Jonathan Mandell, Michael Kuchwara, New York Post, New York Times, NY 1, NY Blueprint, Peter Marks, Reviews, Roma Torre, The Faster Times, Theatremania, USA Today, Washington Post
