Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs first premiered on December 10th, 1982 in a Pre-Broadway showcase. It is the first in Simon's so-called Eugene Trilogy (which consists of this play, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway Bound). Brighton Beach Memoirs is semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story and is set in 1937 Brooklyn during the height of the Great Depression. It follows Eugene Morris Jerome, a teenager who has a lot going on in his life -- puberty, an identity crisis, and familial issues.
Brighton Beach Memoirs was a smash-hit upon release. At the Tony Awards, Matthew Broderick won the Award for Best Performance by an Actor Featured in a Play (Željko Ivanek was also nominated for the same award in the play, but he obviously did not win). Elizabeth Franz was likewise nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play; Gene Saks also won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. Ultimately, there were 1,299 performances of the play to go along with 7 preview shows, indicating its tremendous quality -- and very likely its ticket sales.
Simon's play was later adapted into a film of the same name directed by Gene Saks (who also directed the stage play) and written by Simon based on his play. The film was both a box office and critical bomb. Speaking to the lack of quality of the film after having given it a rating of 2 out of 4 stars, famed film critic Roger Ebert wrote that "The stage version of "Brighton Beach Memoirs" seemed much more alive than this film" but that "The movie feels so plotted, so constructed, so written, that I found myself thinking maybe they shouldn't have filmed the final draft of the screenplay." On a budget of only $18 million, the film made back merely $11,957,943 at the box office.
