Noah Robbins Channels Neil Simon in Brighton Beach Memoirs

Age: 19

Hometown: Potomac, Maryland

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as Eugene Morris Jerome, the precocious teen narrator (and alter ego of playwright Neil Simon) in the revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs.

Comedy Tonight: The youngest son of a lawyer and a film documentarian, Robbins debuted professionally in children’s shows at the Kennedy Center under the direction of Debbie Allen, who continued to cast him through high school. Oldest brother Jeremy is in film school at Columbia, and middle brother Ethan is a musician in Boston. How did all three boys end up in the arts? “We’re all Jewish?” Noah quips, putting a Simon-esque spin on the line. “No, I have no idea. My dad is a musician as well as a lawyer, and my mom is a writer and painter. We were all bitten by the arts bug.”

Memory Lane: Before landing the role of Eugene, created on Broadway by Tony winner Matthew Broderick, Robbins starred in a high school production of The Producers—but instead of Leo Bloom, he played Max Bialystock, made famous by Nathan Lane. “I like to do over-the-top, vaudevillian kinds of things,” he says, noting that he’d previously played another Lane role, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. “If you had seen me in high school, you would not have thought of me as Eugene.” During rehearsals, Robbins found himself on an elevator with Lane. “I didn’t have the courage to say anything to him,” he admits. “My heart was pounding.” Stage mom Laurie Metcalf provided a happy ending by introducing the young actor to his idol. “He came to see the show and I was in a photo with him—and it’s on Broadway.com!”

I Defer! While in the final stages of casting for Brighton Beach, Robbins was accepted at Columbia, buoyed by a essay in which he reflected on how being short influenced his personality. “I’ve been a small kid all my life, so I wrote about how that made me a more jubilant person.” A Broadway show is a pretty good excuse for deferring college, and Robbins swears he’ll earn that Ivy degree someday. “I’ll go when this show is done—and if another amazing thing happens to me, I’ll put it off for another year or two.” After all, working with the likes of Metcalf, Jessica Hecht and Santino Fontana is an education in itself. “I’ve become so much better from acting with them and just listening to them talk,” he says.

Beach Boy: What does Robbins love most about playing the central character in Neil Simon’s most heartfelt play? “I hope this doesn’t sound pretentious, but I know where Eugene is coming from because I’m the youngest of three boys,” he says. “Eugene has the ability to step back and observe everything that’s going on, and I was able to do the same thing. Which isn’t to say that I was a shy kid—I was the opposite—but I understand that desire to observe.” Robbins also revels in addressing the audience as the play’s narrator. “It can sound intimidating,” he says, “but for me it’s so relaxing. When you look people in the eye, it alleviates any tension you might feel about being onstage.”

Broadway Bound: Now sharing an apartment near Central Park with his parents, Robbins and his dog Sage are settling in nicely. “He’s a Havanese,” the teen actor says of his beloved pup. “He’s adorable. We were worried that he wouldn’t able to adapt, because he wasn’t a city dog. Before, if he saw one other dog in a month, he’d be jumping off the walls, but now he sees a dog on every corner and he’s okay. I think he’s gotten the hang of living in New York.” As for Robbins, having Neil Simon pat his cheek and say “terrific job” after rehearsal is the ultimate accolade: “I went home that day walking on air.”