Play review - "Broadway Bound" by Neil Simon

 This does cover some familiar ground but I liked it a lot - Eugene and Stanley don't have much of an arc, they write a comedy sketch, but it is interesting to see a dramatisation of the dynamic between Neil and Danny Simon. The plot about the dad leaving the mother feels as though it should have been in Brighton Beach Memoirs but it has genuine power. The character of the aunt feels as though she needed another scene and I would have liked to have met Eugene's girlfriend (seeing her interact with the mother would have been interesting). The George Raft sequence is Simon at his most skilled and confident. The socialist grandad is terrific.

I keep feeling this play should have been merged with Brighton Beach Memoirs - you don't really need the show biz stuff, or you could have down played it (had it be for a talent show or something).