Brighton Beach Memoirs **** (1986, Blythe Danner, Jonathan Silverman, Bob Dishy, Brian Drillinger, Stacey Glick, Judith Ivey) – Classic Movie Review 2006

Infuriatingly, Matthew Broderick doesn’t get to recreate his superb Broadway performance as Eugene Morris Jerome, the young teenage son of a Jewish family through whose eyes we see the typically Woody Allen-style family squabbles and domestic crises in Neil Simon’s delightful personal story of his youthful upbringing.

Eugene recalls his time as an adolescent, living with his parents, his aunt, two cousins and the brother Stanley (Brian Drillinger) he admires. A poor boy in an over-crowded house, Eugene suffers the usual slings and arrows of puberty and sexual fantasies.

Alas, Neil Simon’s funny and touching semi-autobiographical Broadway play about a Brooklyn Jewish family just before the Second World War doesn’t quite get the movie version it truly deserves but it’s still more than good enough.

Instead of Matthew Broderick in the Neil Simon surrogate character of Eugene, we have to make do with his stage replacement Jonathan Silverman – and, receiving an ‘introducing’ credit here, he gives an eager and more than adequate performance. It’s only unfortunate that nobody who saw Broderick as Eugene on stage (or has seen him in the Biloxi Blues sequel movie) could accept anyone else in the role.

Nervously tinkering with the play, Simon’s own screenplay unnecessarily irons out his story’s characterful wrinkles and Gene Saks directs the movie rather plainly without special flair or style, after directing the original Broadway stage production. However, the script’s witty one-liners and wise observations remain all present and correct in a touching and amusing movie –  and they certainly still give a very great deal of pleasure and satisfaction.

Also alas, it was an unpleasant surprise box-office flop. It cost $18million and recouped only around $11million in the US, its main market.

Blythe Danner, Bob Dishy, Brian Drillinger, Stacey Glick, Judith Ivey, Lisa Waltz, Jason Alexander, Steven Hill, Richard Bright, James Handy, Bette Hennitze and David Margulies also star.

Simon’s play premiered the year that Simon and his actress wife Marsha Mason separated and divorced. The original Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on 27 March 1983 and transferred to the 46th Street Theatre on 26 February 1985. The play ran for 1299 performances closing on 11 May 1986. Matthew Broderick won the 1983 Tony for Best Featured Actor. On 9 July 1985, Silverman made his Broadway debut, replacing Broderick. Silverman played Eugene in the Broadway production of Broadway Bound but Corey Parker portrayed him in the movie version.

Sequels: Biloxi Blues (1988, happily with Broderick) and Broadway Bound (1992, without Broderick).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 2006

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