BROADWAY BOUND by Neil Simon; Grand Theatre, Salt Lake Community College South City campus, 1575 S. State; directed by Toni Lynn Byrd; continues Mondays-Fridays at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 2 & 7:30 p.m., through March 25. All seats reserved. Tickets range from $6 to $16, with student and senior citizen discounts available. For reservations, call 957-3322. Free parking available on the east side of the campus. SLCC students, faculty and staff may obtain two half-price tickets per performance with valid identification. Running time: 2 hours, 37 minutes (one intermission).
"I love being a writer," Stanley Jerome tells his younger brother, Eugene, after they've been up all night attempting to cobble together an audition script for CBS Radio. "But the writing is so hard!"But, somehow, this third segment of Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy makes the writing -- at least the writing in his own script -- look so easy.
Like the two productions that preceded it in the cycle -- "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Biloxi Blues" -- Simon balances tender humor with heartfelt emotion. "Broadway Bound," in particular, takes a strong look at a family that's falling apart at the seams.
Director Toni Lynn Byrd, who's directed dozens of comedies and musicals throughout the region, is blessed with a perfectly honed cast of seasoned actors.
Jayne Luke and Christopher P. Angelos are reprising roles they performed in 1992 on the same stage in "Brighton Beach Memoirs" -- Kate, the epitome of the perfect Jewish mother, and her youngest son, Eugene. (Angelos also played Eugene in the region's first production of "Memoirs" at SLAC, but he still has the boyish charm necessary to carry off this role.)
Tony Larimer is perfectly cast as Ben, Kate's aging, cantankerous father, as is Jim Pitts as Stan, who's bound and determined to succeed -- with his brother -- as a comedy writing team.
Rounding out the stellar cast are Mary Parker Williams as Kate's younger sister, who lives on Park Avenue, far from her cold Brighton Beach roots, and David Phillips as Jack, Kate's philandering husband.
Despite the dark edges around the story, Simon manages to inject healthy doses of insightful humor. While the plot swirls around Eugene and Stanley's efforts to break into show business, it is Kate who holds the story together.
One of the show's most poignant scenes (and there are quite a few), comes near the end of Act Two, when Eugene and Kate are alone in the living/dining room. While Kate rolls up a ball of yarn, Gene coaxes the legendary family story out of her about the time, years before, when she danced with young George Raft at the Primrose Ballroom. The ballroom scene is briefly re-enacted with Kate in her floral dress . . . and Gene, still nursing a cold, in his pajamas and bathrobe . . . dancing across the floor to a fox trot played on their wonderful old radio.
Simon's rich dialogue covers a lot of dramatic territory during the 21/2 hours on stage -- Grandpa Ben balking at reconciling with his estranged wife . . . Eugene in the throes of young love with a girl he just met . . . and Pop feeling paranoid over the boys' too-close-to-home comedy sketch on "The Chubby Waters Show."
Through it all, nicely set against a comfortably "homey" set designed by Marnie Sears, there are family situations that are not just Jewish, but you'd find in any home anywhere. Even Utah.
Sensitivity rating: Some adult language and adult situations but nothing offensive.