Simon Works Without a Net This Time, Stays Delightfully Aloft

SOLANA BEACH —  The timing is perfect for having the San Diego premiere of Neil Simon’s “Broadway Bound” now , at the North Coast Repertory Theatre. It provides an opportune setup for the Old Globe Theatre’s March 3 world premiere of “Jake’s Women,” the next installment of Simon’s semi-autobiographical series.

The series began with “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Biloxi Blues,” which, critically, are the best-received plays of Simon’s remarkably successful career, and for good reason.

They are not Simon’s only semi-autobiographical plays. “Come Blow Your Horn,” the story of two brothers living out on their own for the first time; “Barefoot in the Park,” the story of a young couple’s first weeks of married life, and “Chapter Two,” about a widower struggling with a second marriage, all fit the description.

But the BB trilogy, which could be subtitled “The Sentimental Education of Eugene Jerome,” follows the maturation of the same character, a young Jewish boy who escapes a poor, drab existence in the Bronx by pursuing a life as a comedy writer.

Each play kicks away more of the comic crutches--the acerbic one-liners, subtly softened with dollops of sentimentality--that have made Simon famous.

The movement from comedy to drama reaches its culmination in “Broadway Bound,” which, in its refusal to be wrapped up in a nice little comic bow, is, for a playwright like Simon, tantamount to working without a net.

Happily, he doesn’t fall. In the play, as in Simon’s real life, the parents break up; he doesn’t have them kiss and make up at the end, and the pain left behind feels wrenching and true. Simon also doesn’t really answer the question of why they grew apart. But then the breakup is not something the young Eugene, who is about to leave home for his own career and marriage, understands. He just knows he isn’t going to make the same mistakes. But can he really escape his parents’ past?

The answers may become clearer in “Jake’s Women,” as Simon, now on his third marriage, tackles the women in his main character’s life, including mother, daughter, wife, ex-wife and analyst.

The biggest plus of this North Coast production is the welcome return of Paul Epstein as Eugene, the part he played in “Brighton Beach Memoirs” at North Coast just two years before.

Easily the most professional member of the non-Equity cast, this San Dieguito High School graduate who now attends Palomar College seems to understand the personality of Eugene to his core. He is funny, getting the timing of the one-liners with seeming effortlessness, yet never losing the burning urgency behind the need to make the jokes.

Like a fencer, Epstein’s Eugene parries one-liners like a sword that keeps his opponent--reality--at bay. When he can’t deny what’s going on any more--when his father leaves-- he leaves. And, because of the depth of Epstein’s performance, his actions make sense to the audience even if the character’s actions don’t yet make conscious sense to himself.

Director Olive Blakistone, artistic director of North Coast, wisely gives the dramatic shoots of the play room to flourish without sacrificing the pacing that keeps the heart of the comedy beating.

Good support comes from Dan Wingard as Eugene’s driven older brother, Stanley (a little flustered on opening night), and Robert Morgan as the aging grandfather, an old Socialist who thinks his grandsons should be slipping messages about Trotsky into their comedy sketches.

But Blakistone should count herself lucky that these actors and the script are strong enough to withstand the serious miscasting of Eugene’s father, Jack (William Quiett) and Aunt Blanche (Deborah Jerd). Never mind the mumbled and muffed lines by Quiett or the gratingly nasal delivery of Jerd; neither one seems at all in touch with Simon’s Jewish Bronx roots. All good art may ultimately be universal, but it needs to start with getting the specifics right.

As for Sandra Ellis-Troy as Eugene’s mother, Kate, she is radiant and enigmatic enough to gloss over what she lacks in the ability to convey accumulated anger and angst. Linda Lavin may have won a Tony for this role on Broadway, but Ellis-Troy just treads water. Still, give her credit. She doesn’t drown.

The simple set by Bernard Harland captures the feeling of close lower middle-class quarters, down to the musty old oil painting of flowers over the china cabinet. The costumes, by Kathryn Gould, blend right in with the period--1949--and the technical support, by Alexandra Pontone (lighting) and Marvin Read (sound design) works without drawing attention to itself.

One of the more delightful elements of the show are the radio broadcasts. Gary Seger, Andrew Barnicle and Diane Thrasher read the parts of the announcer, comic Chubby Waters, and Mrs. Pitkin, the Jerome brothers’ first comic creation, with infectious enthusiasm. The broadcast is cleverly produced by Seger to have the broad comic strokes and scratchy sounds of 50 years ago.

Like the radio program, this “Broadway Bound” is not without its scratch marks, but it is also a moving and touching story about real people that makes you long to hear more.

It should be interesting to see what the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre does with the show when it presents it in January. Luckily for the Gaslamp, this is a show that wears well, both for its own sake and as what may prove a preview of coming attractions at the Globe.

“BROADWAY BOUND”

By Neil Simon. Director, Olive Blakistone. Set design, Bernard Harland. Lighting, Alexandra Pontone. Costumes, Kathryn Gould. Sound, Marvin Read. With Sandra Ellis-Troy, Robert Morgan, Paul Epstein, Dan Wingard, Deborah Jerd and William Quiett.

At 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, with Sunday matinees at 2 (Oct. 15, 22 and Nov. 5, 12), through Nov. 18. Tickets are $10-12. At 987-D Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach, 481-1055.