Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs & Broadway Bound to be Revived

Neil Simon’s autobiographical comedies Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound will be revived on Broadway in the fall of 2009, playing in rep at a theater to be announced, according to Variety. Simon’s longtime producer Emanuel Azenberg confirmed that auditions will be held in the next month for the young lead character Eugene Jerome, a Tony-winning role for Matthew Broderick in the 1983 premiere of Brighton and played three years later by Jonathan Silverman in Broadway Bound.

The two plays are the first and third parts of a trilogy that also included Biloxi Blues 1985, in which Broderick again played Eugene, a character based on the playwright. Because both Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound are set in the Jerome home in Brooklyn, the two plays can work well in rep. Azenberg is apparently undecided about whether to cast two actors as Eugene the character is a decade older in Broadway Bound, though the rest of the cast is expected to do double duty. Elizabeth Franz received a Tony nomination as matriarch Kate Jerome in Brighton Beach Memoirs and Linda Lavin received a Best Actress Tony in the same role in Broadway Bound.

Gene Saks was the original director of the three plays; The New York Times named Daniel Sullivan as the probable director of the revivals. Ira Pittelman The Odd Couple, Spring Awakening will join Azenberg as producer.