The Neil Simon Plays: Tickets now on sale

Tickets are now on sale for The Neil Simon Plays, new productions of Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound. Specially priced preview tickets offering a 50% discount (not including Saturday evening performances) will be available for both plays if ordered by 6 Sep 2009. Regular priced tickets are $100 - $65.

The first Broadway revivals of two of Simon�s semi-autobiographical 'Eugene Jerome' plays will be directed by David Cromer (Our Town) and will play at the Nederlander Theatre.

Brighton Beach Memoirs opens on 2 Oct 2009, following previews from 25 Oct. Broadway Bound opens on 10 Dec 2009, following previews from 18 Nov. Starting on 18 Nov the two plays will be performed in repertory on a varied schedule.

Brighton Beach Memoirs will star Laurie Metcalf (Kate Jerome), Dennis Boutsikaris (Jack Jerome), Santino Fontana (Stanley Jerome), Noah Robbins (Eugene Jerome), Jessica Hecht (Blanche) and Alexandra Socha (Nora). The role of 'Laurie' is still to be cast.

Broadway Bound will star Laurie Metcalf (Kate Jerome), Dennis Boutsikaris (Jack Jerome), Santino Fontana (Stanley Jerome), Josh Grisetti (Eugene Jerome), Jessica Hecht (Blanche) and Allan Miller (Ben).

The semi-autobiographical �Eugene Jerome� plays Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound were two of the longest running Broadway plays of the 1980s. Both plays ushered in a new era of appreciation for Neil Simon, with praise for the playwright�s hilarious and poignant account of his adolescence, early career and family life in New York in the 1930s and 1940s.

Brighton Beach Memoirs originally opened on 27 Mar 1983 at the Alvin Theatre and played for 1,299 performances. (During the run of Brighton Beach Memoirs, the Alvin Theatre was renamed The Neil Simon Theatre). Broadway Bound opened on 4 Dec 1986 at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it played for 756 performances.

Brighton Beach Memoirs centers on young Jewish teen Eugene Morris Jerome and his extended family living in a crowded home in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn in 1937: his overworked father, Jack; overbearing mother, Kate; his older brother Stanley; Kate�s widowed sister Blanche and her daughters, Nora and Laurie. As Eugene spends his time daydreaming about a baseball career, he must also cope with his family�s troubles, his awkward discovery of the opposite sex and his developing identity as a writer.

In Broadway Bound, it�s the late 1940s. Eugene and his older brother Stanley have started their careers as professional comedy writers, but at home in Brighton Beach, their parents� marriage is falling apart. When the brothers use these troubles as inspiration for a radio comedy skit, the Jerome family may never be the same.

The creative team for The Neil Simon Plays features Scenic design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by Jane Greenwood and lighting design by Brian MacDevitt.

The Neil Simon Plays are being produced on Broadway by Ira Pittelman, Max Cooper, Jeffrey Sine, Scott Delman, Ruth Hendel, Roy Furman, Ben Sprecher/Wendy Federman, Scott Landis and Emanuel Azenberg.

Neil Simon�s career spans a remarkable six decades in theatre, film and television. He is the winner of three Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Mark Twain Award for American Humor and was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor in 1995. Some of his plays for the theatre include 'Barefoot in the Park,' 'The Odd Couple,' 'Plaza Suite,' 'The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,' 'The Prisoner of Second Avenue,' 'The Sunshine Boys,' 'California Suite,' 'Chapter Two,' 'Lost in Yonkers,' 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor,' 'The Dinner Party,' the Eugene Trilogy of 'Brighton Beach Memoirs,' 'Biloxi Blues' and 'Broadway Bound,' and the books for the musicals for 'Little Me,' 'Sweet Charity,' 'Promises Promises,' 'They�re Playing Our Song' and 'The Goodbye Girl.'

Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound will mark director David Cromer's Broadway debut. The chicago based director helmed the off-Broadway production of the musical 'Adding Machine,' which played to critical acclaim at the Minetta Lane Theatre from 9 Feb - 20 Jul 2008, and he is currently represented off-Broadway with the Chicago production of Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town' playing at the Barrow Street Theatre.