Brighton Beach Memoirs premiered on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on March 27, 1983 and won a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play. It is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the first chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy, preceding Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound, in which we meet Eugene Jerome and his family, fighting the hard times and sometimes each other with laughter, tears, and love. Fifteen-year-old Eugene Jerome lives in Brighton Beach with his family during the heart of the Depression in 1937. He is witty, perceptive, obsessed with sex, and forever fantasizing his baseball-diamond triumphs as star pitcher for the New York Yankees. As our guide through his “memoirs,” Eugene takes us through a series of trenchant observations and insights that show his family meeting life’s challenges with pride, spirit, and a marvelous sense of humor.