Brighton Beach Memoirs

All Eugene Jerome wants to do is eat ice cream and see a naked woman, preferably at the same time. At the moment, all he has to do is go get another quarter pound of butter from the store every morning and afternoon because of his mother's strange shopping habits and keep the noise down (there's a cake in the oven). The Depression is dragging on in 1937, and his aunt and her two daughters — one of them the beautiful Nora, who's close to Eugene's age — have moved in out of necessity. Eugene's dad is working two jobs to support everyone, his older brother faces a moral dilemma at his own job, and poor Eugene gets buffeted about by the whims of his mother and the various intra-family squabbles. Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical play Brighton Beach Memoirs is a trip back to the simpler days, when a family could drive each other crazy and no one tweeted about it. The New Jewish Theatre opens its new season with Brighton Beach Memoirs. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (October 10 to 27) in the Wool Studio Theatre at the Jewish Community Center (2 Millstone Campus Drive; www.newjewishtheatre.org). Tickets are $47 to $54.