Metcalf, Grisetti, Boutsikaris, Robbins, and More Set For 'BRIGHTON BEACH' and 'BROADWAY BOUND' Casts

Producers Emanuel Azenberg and Ira Pittelman are pleased to announce casting for THE Neil Simon PLAYS - new productions of two of Neil Simon's most beloved and successful works, BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS and BROADWAY BOUND. David Cromer (currently represented in New York with the critically acclaimed production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town) directs THE Neil Simon PLAYS, which will be performed in repertory at a theatre to be announced.

BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS begins previews on Friday, October 2, 2009 and opens on Sunday, October 25, 2009. BROADWAY BOUND begins previews on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 and opens Thursday, December 10, 2009. Beginning with previews for BROADWAY BOUND, THE Neil Simon PLAYS will be performed in repertory on a varied schedule.

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 March 27, 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 December 4, 1986 at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it played for 756 performances.

THE Neil Simon PLAYS star Laurie Metcalf as Kate Jerome and Dennis Boutsikaris as Jack Jerome, with Santino Fontana as Stanley Jerome, Josh Grisetti as Eugene Jerome in BROADWAY BOUND, Jessica Hecht as Blanche, Allan Miller as Ben in BROADWAY BOUND, Noah Robbins as Eugene Jerome in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS and Alexandra Socha as Nora in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS. Casting for the role of Laurie in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS will be announced soon.

Laurie Metcalf recently starred on Broadway with Nathan Lane in David Mamet's November, earning a 2008 Tony Award nomination. She is an original member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she has appeared in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Coyote Ugly, Educating Rita, Libra and Balm in Gilead (Drama Desk, Obie, Theatre World Awards). LA: Ovation Awards for Jane Anderson's Looking for Normal and Arthur Miller's All My Sons (Geffen Theatre). TV: "Roseanne" and "The Norm Show." Film: Desperately Seeking Susan, Internal Affairs, Making Mr. Right, Uncle Buck, JFK, Toy Story, Bulworth, Scream 2 and Leaving Las Vegas.

Dennis Boutsikaris' Broadway credits include Amadeus, Filumena and Bent, and Obie Award-winning roles Off-Broadway in Sight Unseen and Nest of the Woodgrouse, as well as That Championship Season, The Boys Next Door and A Picasso. TV credits include "Chasing the Dragon," "And Then There Was One," "Big Time," "Stat," "The Jackie Thomas Show" and "Misery Loves Company." Film: In Dreams, Surviving Picasso, Boys on the Side, Dream Team, Crocodile Dundee II and *batteries not included.

Santino Fontana has appeared on Broadway in Sunday in the Park with George at Roundabout Theatre Company, Off-Broadway as Matt in The Fantasticks and currently plays Tony in Billy Elliot The Musical. Josh Grisetti, who will be making his Broadway debut, recently received Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel nominations and a Theatre World Award for his role as David Kolowitz in Enter Laughing at York Theatre Company. Jessica Hecht has appeared on Broadway in Julius Caesar, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and After The Fall and is also known for her recurring roles in the TV shows "Friends" and "Seinfeld," and as a series regular on "The Single Guy". Allan Miller has extensive film, theater and TV credits, and last appeared on Broadway in Brooklyn Boy at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre. Noah Robbins, who will be making his Broadway debut, is a senior at Georgetown Day School in Washington D.C., and has appeared in several shows at the Kennedy Center and as Max Bialystock in his high school's production of The Producers. Alexandra Socha returns to Broadway after playing Wendla in Spring Awakening.

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.

Neil Simon's career spans a remarkable six decades in theatre, film and television and he is one of the world's most performed authors. 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 beloved 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.

Director David Cromer is currently represented in New York with the critically acclaimed revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town at the Barrow Street Theatre. His other New York credits include Adding Machine, for which he received a 2008 Obie Award, and Orson's Shadow. His Chicago directing credits include Picnic (Writers), Come Back, Little Sheba (Shattered Globe), Cider House Rules (Famous Door) and Angels in America (Journeymen) among others. His regional credits include Glass Menagerie at Kansas City Rep and Farnsworth Invention, SantaLand Diaries and Orson's Shadow at Alley Theatre.

Scenic design is by John Lee Beatty, costume design is by Jane Greenwood and lighting design is by Brian MacDevitt.

Tickets will go on sale in August. Rehearsals will begin in New York on Monday, August 24.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.