Brooklyn Boy is a play by American playwright Donald Margulies

Donald Margulies

Donald Margulies is an American playwright and a professor of English and Theater Studies at Yale University...

.

Novelist Eric Weiss, critically celebrated but unsuccessful, "arrives" when his new, autobiographical novel becomes a best-seller. An outsider all his life, he is suddenly on the inside of everything: town cars, television studios, the Sunday book review. But as his career takes off, his personal life stutters.

His father lies ill in Maimonides Hospital, Jewish Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

's version of the river Styx, wondering when Eric will produce his first grandchild. His former friends and neighbors in Brooklyn celebrate his success while simultaneously being suspicious about his attitude toward them–in life and in his novel. And his success, rather than oiling the waters of his marriage, troubles them for him and his writer-wife.

Brooklyn Boy is Margulies' first work for the stage since winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Pulitzer Prize for Drama

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...

 with his Dinner with Friends

Dinner with Friends

Dinner with Friends is a 2000 play written by Donald Margulies. It premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened Off-Broadway in New York on November 4, 1999.-Plot summary:...

. Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan, who directed South Coast Repertory

South Coast Repertory

South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...

's production of Dinner with Friends returned to SCR to direct the world premiere Brooklyn Boy starring Adam Arkin

Adam Arkin

Adam Arkin is an American television, film and stage actor and director. He played the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as 3 primetime Emmys, 4 SAG Awards , and a DGA Award...

 as Eric Weiss; Allan Miller

Allan Miller

Allan Miller is an American actor, best known for the role of Harland Richards in Santa Barbara.Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Anna and Benedict Miller....

 as his father Manny; Dana Reeve

Dana Reeve

Dana Reeve was an American actress, singer, and activist for disability causes. She was the widow of actor Christopher Reeve.-Early life and family:...

 as his wife Nina; as well as Arye Gross

Arye Gross

-Biography:Gross was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Sheri and Joseph Gross, who was an aerospace engineer and later worked in business....

, Ari Graynor

Ari Graynor

Ariel Geltman Graynor, better known as Ari Graynor, is an American actress.-Life and career:Graynor was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was raised in a Jewish family and attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Trinity College, in Hartford,...

, Mimi Leiber, Kevin Isola and Polly Draper

Polly Draper

Polly Carey Draper is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director. She is renowned for her ensemble role in ABC's hit series Thirtysomething. In 1998, Draper starred in her screenwriting debut The Tic Code, featuring Gregory Hines which was inspired by her husband Michael...

. His staging was a co-production by South Coast Repertory

South Coast Repertory

South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...

 and the Manhattan Theatre Club

Manhattan Theatre Club

Manhattan Theatre Club is a theater company located in New York City. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most acclaimed...

, and moved to the Biltmore Theatre

Biltmore Theatre

The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 261 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan.-History:...

 on Broadway in January, 2005.

The novelist Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...

 was one of the first American writers to point out that you can't go home again. In Brooklyn Boy, Margulies makes his own funny, warm and moving testament to that adage, while adding the irony that you can also never leave.

Character List

• Eric Weiss
• Manny Weiss
• Ira Zimmer
• Nina
• Alison
• Melanie Fine
• Tyler Shaw

External links

• Program from the world premiere of Brooklyn Boy at South Coast Repertory
  South Coast Repertory
  South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...