Valencia College Theatre is bringing the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” to the stage this spring as the first show of the new year. This affectionate and heartwarming show will appear in the Black Box Theater on Valencia College’s East Campus from February 14–22, 2020.
Winner of two Tony Awards following its Broadway debut in 1983, Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” is set in New York’s Brighton Beach and tells the coming-of-age story of 15-year-old boy, Eugene Morris Jerome. The humorous but sincere story focuses on Eugene’s Jewish-American family in the post-depression, pre-war-era Brooklyn. Living with six other family members under one roof, including extended family members who recently moved in after his aunt becomes widowed, young Eugene struggles for any semblance of privacy in his home.
However, the absurdity of the household manages to provide him with plenty of ammunition for his budding career as a writer. In excerpts from his journal, we meet Eugene’s over-worked father, his under-appreciated mother, his comparatively–worldly older brother Stanley, his cousins Nora (the beautiful star-in-training) and Laurie (the pampered bookworm), and his widowed, asthmatic Aunt Blanche.
Through the eyes of Neil Simon’s young protagonist, the audience dives into the adolescent mind that is wracked with some of the most pressing thoughts of any teenage boy–baseball and girls–while also touching on family topics that transcend generations.
Valencia College Theatre’s production of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” is directed by Eric Pinder.
Valencia College Theatre will present “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in the Black Box Theater, located on Valencia College’s East Campus 701 N. Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando. Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for students, Valencia faculty/staff/alumni, seniors and military. Tickets and more information are also available by calling the college box office at 407-582-2900 or visiting www.valenciacollege.edu/arts or call 407-582-2268.