Helen Hayes Award-winning actor Andy Brownstein has been absent from the DC stages since his 2012 performance as Michael in the pitch-black comedy God of Carnage at Signature Theatre. However, this week he makes his return in 1st Stage’s production of Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound, a fragile, tender comedy dealing with divorce, pain, family tension and humor.
In the play, Eugene Jerome (Neil Simon’s autobiographical stand-in) and his brother Stanley take their first steps into a new career as comedy writers. But this exciting new beginning comes with much tension, as it coincides with an ending- their parents’ impending divorce.
As Brownstein puts it, “It’s a screamingly funny play, but much of the comedy comes from an uncomfortable and at times desperate place.” It’s a style of humor that might resonate well with the current emotional climate of the city.