Broadway Bound Soundly Completes Simon's Trilogy
by Jeff Church
The winter of 1948 was a cold one for the Jerome household, and the chilly snap had found its way indoors to the family. Neil Simon's Broadway Bound is played on the same set as his first semi-autobiographical installment, Brighton Beach Memoirs, but this time drifts of snow surround the home scene. The play is filled with characters wrapped in protective blankets trying to avoid the piercing air. Interesting, this, for Brighton Beach took place in poverty-stricken 1937; yet overall, the times were probably more favorable.
Brighton Beach began the autobiography with a self-portrait of Simon as a Brooklyn teenager growing up in a crowded, lower middle class household. There Eugene Morris, Jerome Simon's youthful alter ego, spent a great deal of time dreaming of two things; pro baseball and a cute cousin who happened to be staying with his family at the time. With Eugene's comic spirit prevailing over family miseries, the climate of the play was quite conducive to good times. Especially prized were the boy's nimble-witted, sagacious asides spoken directly to audiences.
Boot Camp Drama
The terrain covered in Biloxi Blues was World War II basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1943. Eugene and five other army recruits suffered under the regime of a martinet drill instructor, though this was boot camp comedy/drama at its best. Simon maneuvered his plot to include Eugene falling in love, planted clues as to his eventual development as a writer, and took a glimpse into situations of racial prejudice. Eugene figured somewhat less prominently here but continued to share his sharply observant thoughts with the audience. The play garnered the 1985 Tony Award for Best Play.
Now, in Broadway Bound, Eugene is a young man, living at home and working with his brother, Stanley, to make a break into writing comedy for radio. The two spend a great deal of time upstairs, while their mother, Kate, devotedly runs the house, looks after their grandfather, and wonders what has become of her marriage with Jack. Here is a family that does not allow troubles of this nature to be discussed; confrontations on such matters have nearly always been avoided.
Arguments, nonetheless, become plentiful. Kate and Jack have dodged rocky marital issues for far too long. While they rage at each other below, Eugene and Stanley humorously bicker in their bedrooms over sketches they have written and rewritten - deciding that conflict is the key to comedy. Gene Saks, a veteran director of Neil Simon plays, has taken this notion to heart. Saks' direction brings about sudden encounters in which years of tucked-away frustrations have a chance to be assuaged. The sparks that fly have a similarity to those struck by Arthur Miller. This, along with Simon's wit, makes for characters that rival those in Willy Loman's family - and may be more welcome in our minds.
Moving as the characters are, Eugene's central status is taken away in this final chapter and given to his mother. In this decided shift of focus, we learn much more about Kate and her life, oftentimes from her
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