Brighton Beach Memoirs to Close; Broadway Bound Canceled

The recent revival of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, directed by David Cromer, closed on November 1 after 25 previews and nine performances. The planned production of Simon’s Broadway Bound, which was supposed to run in rep at the Nederlander Theatre with the earlier play, is now off. The closing and cancellation were due to weak ticket sales, according to The New York Times, which analyzed the failure of Brighton Beach in a front-page article on November 2. The play opened to mostly positive reviews on October 25, directed by David Cromer.

"A lot of nice people on stage and off will be out of work and a lot of good partners and investors will have lost a great deal of money," producers Emanuel Azenberg and Ira Pittelman said in a statement. "They all deserve better. It makes us sad."

The central role of Eugene is played by Noah Robbins in Brighton Beach Memoirs and was to be played by Josh Grisetti in Broadway Bound. The rest of the cast includes Laurie Metcalf as matriarch Kate Jerome, Dennis Boutsikaris as patriarch Jack Jerome, Santino Fontana as older brother Stanley Jerome, and Jessica Hecht as Kate's widowed sister, Blanche. Brighton Beach Memoirs also features Alexandra Socha as Nora and Gracie Bea Lawrence as Laurie, while Broadway Bound was also to include Allan Miller as Ben.

Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound were enormous hits on Broadway in the 1980s, with Matthew Broderick winning his first Tony as Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1983 and Linda Lavin winning Best Actress as Kate in Broadway Bound in 1987.

Broadway Bound, which was already in rehearsal, was to begin previews at the Nederlander Theatre on November 18 and open on December 10.