'Brighton Beach' begins Playhouse's renaissance season

A press release said that opening night was sold out for the first time in nearly 20 years.
By GARRY L. CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A exciting array of activities served as both a prelude and postlude Friday evening to the Youngstown Playhouse's glittering 80th-season opening performance of "Brighton Beach Memoirs."
Searchlights lighted up the night sky near the facility's doors, and music filled the air as a sellout crowd -- the first for a season opener of a nonmusical in nearly 20 years, according to a Playhouse press release -- arrived to attend the Neil Simon comedy. An exhibition courtesy of the Mahoning Valley Watercolor Society graced the walls of the lobby, and a champagne reception followed the performance in the theater's Moyer Room.
Recently returned executive director Bentley Lenhoff stated in the release that he "had to reopen the balcony of the Playhouse to accommodate the many people who want to experience the rebirth of the Playhouse."
On with the show
"Brighton Beach Memoirs" is a wonderful comedy, the first in a trilogy based on Simon's real-life experiences growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. Though it evokes plenty of laughter, the play also offers the audience a moving, poignant venture into the lives of a lower-middle class Jewish-American family a few years before World War II.
It presents the world as seen through the eyes of the young Eugene Jerome, an aspiring writer, and how he relates to those with whom he shares his home. There are his parents, Jack and Kate; his older brother, Stanley; his widowed maternal aunt, Blanche; and her two daughters, Laurie and Nora. Pent-up frustrations reach a near-breaking point as the family struggles, both amusingly and emotionally with unemployment, fear of the impending war, sickness and growing up.
Cast
Tom DePaola was positively brilliant as the young Eugene. He displayed an excellent grasp of his character as he frequently broke through the "fourth wall" to relate to the audience as narrator as well as the character.
In equally fine form as his brother, Stanley, was Chris Chaibi. His comedy was excellent, but his serious moments, especially with his father, were superb.
Portraying their mother was the delightful Molly Galano, who was the epitome of what her character called her to be, a typical Simon-style "Jewish mother" who was born to worry.
John Cox gave a stellar turn in the part of Jack, the family patriarch who provides for everyone and remains relatively unruffled as he accepts life as it comes, problems and all.
The role of Blanche was very ably filled by Colleen Casey-Grager as Kate's widowed sister who is reluctant to make decisions, but must come to grips with that paralysis of her nature.
Kate Romutis and Candace DiLullo were quite in their element as Laurie and Nora, respectively. Romutis gave a good rendition of a child who'd been coddled too much because of illness, and DiLullo was also excellent as her petulant sister who doesn't really feel loved.
Scenic design by Paul Kimpel and light direction by Jim Lybarger were perfect for this show, and impeccable direction by Joseph Scarvell was evident throughout.
If Friday's opening night is any indication, the Youngstown Playhouse's renaissance has truly begun.