Brighton Beach Memoirs 

By Neil Simon

"Brighton Beach Memoirs" won the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play. The New York Post called it Neil Simon's "best play" saying "it will become a standard part of American dramatic literature." The Daily News proclaimed it, "Simon's richest play." It is the first of the playwright's semi-autobiographical "B Plays." Eugene is a 15 year old preoccupied with sex and the Yankees: a writer-to-be, an alternately perplexed and perceptive observer, and our guide to life with the Jerome family. It is September 1937, late in the Depression, the Jeromes have relatives living with them, and life is by no means easy. There are troubles including illness, unemployment, poverty, deep resentments and foreboding signs of World War II. Yet the family meets challenges with enormous spirit, dignity, and vigor that life---at once humorous, and poignant---is something to celebrate. Time Magazine said: "Brighton Beach Memoirs' belongs to the family genre where the passwords are forgive and remember."