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Brooklyn Boy
“Donald Margulies has an unerring sense of language and the ability to penetrate deeply into the darkness of tangled human emotions.” –Joel Hirschhorn, Variety
“Quietly melancholic… Margulies has a near-matchless ear for what common speech can express and what it can only hint at. He explores the queasy relationships between life and art, love and estrangement, and the bane that is American identity drift, with unsparing but compassionate candor.” –Misha Berson, Seattle Times
“Margulies’s remarkable gift of building characterization through realistic dialogue is undiminished. Full of aching ruefulness that underlies the comedy, Brooklyn Boy ’s scenes are written with precision and humor. The play isn’t about Brooklyn, nor is it about a boy—it’s about a man without a home.” –Don Shirley, Los Angeles Times
This new play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Dinner with Friends follows the career of Eric Weiss, a writer whose novel hits the bestseller list the same time his life begins to unravel. His wife is out the door, his father is in the hospital, and his childhood friend thinks he has sold himself to the devil. A funny and emotionally rich look at family, friends and fame.
Donald Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends . The play received numerous awards, including the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination, and has been produced all over the United States and around the world. In addition to his adaptation of God of Vengeance , his many plays include Collected Stories , The Country House, Sight Unseen , The Model Apartment , The Loman Family Picnic , What’s Wrong with This Picture? and Time Stands Still . Mr. Margulies currently lives with his wife and their son in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches playwriting at Yale University.
“Quietly melancholic… Margulies has a near-matchless ear for what common speech can express and what it can only hint at. He explores the queasy relationships between life and art, love and estrangement, and the bane that is American identity drift, with unsparing but compassionate candor.” –Misha Berson, Seattle Times
“Margulies’s remarkable gift of building characterization through realistic dialogue is undiminished. Full of aching ruefulness that underlies the comedy, Brooklyn Boy ’s scenes are written with precision and humor. The play isn’t about Brooklyn, nor is it about a boy—it’s about a man without a home.” –Don Shirley, Los Angeles Times
This new play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Dinner with Friends follows the career of Eric Weiss, a writer whose novel hits the bestseller list the same time his life begins to unravel. His wife is out the door, his father is in the hospital, and his childhood friend thinks he has sold himself to the devil. A funny and emotionally rich look at family, friends and fame.
Donald Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends . The play received numerous awards, including the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination, and has been produced all over the United States and around the world. In addition to his adaptation of God of Vengeance , his many plays include Collected Stories , The Country House, Sight Unseen , The Model Apartment , The Loman Family Picnic , What’s Wrong with This Picture? and Time Stands Still . Mr. Margulies currently lives with his wife and their son in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches playwriting at Yale University.
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2005
About the author
Donald Margulies
37 books26 followersBorn in Brooklyn in 1954, Donald Margulies grew up in Trump Village, a Coney Island housing project built by Donald Trump's father. Margulies was exposed early to the theatre. His father, a wallpaper salesman, played show tunes on the family hi-fi and, despite a limited income, often took his children to Manhattan to attend Broadway plays and musicals.
Margulies studied visual arts at the Pratt Institute before transferring to State University of New York to pursue a degree in playwriting. During the early 80s, he collaborated with Joseph Papp, and his first Off-Broadway play, Found a Peanut, was produced at the Public Theatre. In 1983, he moved with his wife to New Haven, Connecticut, so that she could attend Yale Medical School.
In 1992, Margulies' career really began to take off when Sight Unseen won an Obie for Best New American Play. Some of his other plays include The Loman Family Picnic; Pitching to the Star; Zimmer; Luna Park; What's Wrong With This Picture?; The Model Apartment; Broken Sleep; July 7, 1994, and The God of Vengeance. Dinner With Friends--which tells the story of a seemingly happy couple who re-examine their own relationship when their best friends decide to divorce--won Margulies a 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He had previously been nominated for a Pulitzer for Collected Stories, a play about a Jewish writer who is betrayed by her young disciple.
Elected to the Dramatists Guild Council in 1993, Margulies has received grants from Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS), New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. His plays have premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, The New York Shakespeare Festival and the Jewish Repertory Theatre. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.
Margulies studied visual arts at the Pratt Institute before transferring to State University of New York to pursue a degree in playwriting. During the early 80s, he collaborated with Joseph Papp, and his first Off-Broadway play, Found a Peanut, was produced at the Public Theatre. In 1983, he moved with his wife to New Haven, Connecticut, so that she could attend Yale Medical School.
In 1992, Margulies' career really began to take off when Sight Unseen won an Obie for Best New American Play. Some of his other plays include The Loman Family Picnic; Pitching to the Star; Zimmer; Luna Park; What's Wrong With This Picture?; The Model Apartment; Broken Sleep; July 7, 1994, and The God of Vengeance. Dinner With Friends--which tells the story of a seemingly happy couple who re-examine their own relationship when their best friends decide to divorce--won Margulies a 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He had previously been nominated for a Pulitzer for Collected Stories, a play about a Jewish writer who is betrayed by her young disciple.
Elected to the Dramatists Guild Council in 1993, Margulies has received grants from Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS), New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. His plays have premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, The New York Shakespeare Festival and the Jewish Repertory Theatre. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 27, 2018
The play Brooklyn Boy is composed of a series of short scenes that provides a glimpse at a "middle-aged" (whatever that is) novelist from Brooklyn, and the mild, brewing conflict between the writer and his father--dying at Maimonides Hospital; between the writer and an old friend--still a practicing Jew living in Brooklyn who manages a deli; an evening with a young woman 'groupie' whom the novelist meets at a bookstore book reading; and then a culminating scene back in Brooklyn, with a fantasy-scene reprise of what has gone on prior to the ending: an examination of a fiction writer who must explain his book is not an autobiography to his father; not a "celebrity", which his Brooklyn friend appears to perceive him as; not a 'cool' writer as the young undergraduate screenwriting student sees him as; and not a "Brooklyn boy," an appelation the writer seems to have eschewed since his 'escape from Brooklyn." However, in the climactic scene he realizes that he is indeed a Brooklyn boy, and his desire to escape his place of origin is central to being from Brooklyn. The play feels dated. It is really a slight update of a Neil Simon play; the issues it addresses have all been addressed before, and unfortunately, unlike the fact that the novelist character has a best selling novel (presumably dealing with contemporary issues), the play is neither contemporary nor of much interest. It seems that while the novelist depicted in the play has rolled with the literary punches, the writer of the play has not. In this regard, it seems to be a self-described elegy to the writer himself. THAT is what gives the play any power it may have. And that is sad. It feels as though the writer is co-opting the role of the critic, and foreseeing his own fate in a world where are is only judged by its relevance, and not by craft or talent. And THAT is sad as well.
February 6, 2020
I've decided I'll read any play by Donald Margulies. I was very familiar with his "Dinner With Friends", a play with marvelous, realistic dialogue in which he displays a real knack for creating realistic relationships. "Brooklyn Boy" did not disappoint in this regard. I especially enjoyed the way his "fictional" work was based on his real life and how this impacted his friends and family. I almost wish he had played with this even more. Also, the question about how "Jewish" a script can be in order to be accepted by audiences (his book is optioned as a film) was particularly interesting given the recent rise in anti-Semetism in contemporary life. That even makes me wonder if Margulies may tackle that very subject in a new play. We could certainly use such a play, especially if written with the subtlety that Margulies is capable of.
April 22, 2018
Donald Margulies is a master at dialogue, and his plays deal with those things we feel but can’t quite express in words. Brooklyn Boy is such a play. Funny, sad, and ultimately indescriptible.
August 25, 2018
Random pick but it turned out to be an enjoying read.
August 23, 2008
Admittedly, I'm started to feel a little over saturated by plays or movies about plays or movies (or about writers or actors). That said, "Brooklyn Boy," is quite a fun play. The characters are specific and vibrant, the dialogue is sharp, and the material is compelling. All in all, a very decent play.
December 27, 2008
For a play that leans dangerously close to "Hallmark", it has some very good 2-person scenes that I look forward to using in class. All-in-all I don't think I would go out of my way to SEE this play, but it was good. I liked SIGHT UNSEEN better.
April 22, 2021
When I first read this play, 15 years ago, I thought it was meh. Now, with a little more life behind me and the passing of my father, this seems like a whole new play. Revisiting things one has read before can lead to new insights, which in a way, is what the lay itself is about.
March 25, 2010
Margulies earns his stripes as a Pulitzer winner. This is a very well-done play that gives the traditional "coming of age" story a twist as it follows a middle-aged man. Focuses on the familiar without ever becoming too stereotypical.
May 23, 2009
This play was commissioned and produced by South Coast Repertory and I just have to say, thank God we have Donald!
January 22, 2013
Great play!
November 24, 2016
Some great moments, but overall slow paced and a little hokey at times. It was well written, but not a lot at stake or interesting.
April 6, 2017
I'm actually giving this a 3.5. It's a good, solid, well written play. But my feeling about plays is that they were written to be staged and seen not to be read.
So full disclosure, I only read this because I was recently cast as Manny Weiss in a community theater production of Brooklyn Boy. The structure of the play is interesting in that all but one of the scenes involve only the main character and one other character.
So full disclosure, I only read this because I was recently cast as Manny Weiss in a community theater production of Brooklyn Boy. The structure of the play is interesting in that all but one of the scenes involve only the main character and one other character.
February 22, 2018
A little bit obvious but with some great individual scenes and well-formed characters. I liked the Nine vibes a lot.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews