46 I CHRONICLESnseem imminent. Within a year or two,nRobert K. Johnson’s critical study—nNeil Simon, published in 1983—willnnot be the only serious investigationnon the bookshelf. (Parenthetically,nJohnson’s first chapter is calledn”Broadway Bound”—it’s difficult notnto construe some “bemused borrowing”nby Simon.)nNow that he is finally being takennseriously, what, after all, has Simonnreally done to bring about this “bountifulnbelated breakthrough” with hisnautobiographical trilogy? In fact, is thisnseries of plays any more autobiographicalnthan his first play. Come Blow Yournwhat has come before. When all isnsaid and done, Simon did not grow upnin the Brighton Beach section ofnBrooklyn that he has now immortalized,nbut rather in WashingtonnHeights, located at the northern mostnpart of Manhattan. He didn’t go tonboot camp in Biloxi, Mississippi, butnin Colorado. And when he and hisnbrother Danny left home, it wasn’t tonwrite for Broadway, but for CBS radionand later television, where they progressednfrom working on The Phil SilversnArrow Show to joining the teamn(including Woody Allen and MelnBrooks) that wrote for Sid Caesar andnllic cdil u/ Neil Simon’s new play, Broadway Bound, directed by Gene Saks; atnthe Broadhurst Theatre. Photo: Martha Swope & Associates.nHorn, which incidentally picks up preciselynat the moment where BroadwaynBound ends, when he and his brothernleave home to establish themselves asnadults in Manhattan? Or his next offering.nBarefoot in the Park, which wenknew all along was based on the earlynperiod of his first marriage? Or for thatnmatter, his 1977 opus. Chapter Two,nwhich described his difficulty in copingnwith the premature death by cancernof his first wife and his subsequentnmarriage to Marsha Mason? Even ThenOdd Couple, which many considerednthe best in the canon, derived at leastnpartial inspiration from his brothernDanny, who has turned up time andnagain in Simon’s life and in the plays.nCuriously, the new trilogy onlynseems more autobiographical thannImogene Coca’s Your Show of Shows.nIt’s also germane to note that Simon’snaunt and cousins didn’t stay for a timenwith his family, as he depicts innBrighton Beach; instead, he and hisnmother were actually taken in bynthem.nTo a certain extent, such dissemblingnand a rearrangement of the factsnhave always been the license of fictionnwithout diminishing the notion of autobiographicalnconnections. Whatndoes need explanation, however, is thenrather mistaken supposition thatnSimon has suddenly turned to autobiography.nThe critics have been dupednnnin part by Simon’s introduction of onenEugene Morris Jerome, perhaps hisnmost loving invention to date. Eugenenis the adolescent narrator who guidesnus through the Jerome household innBrighton Beach in 1937. Eugene turnsnup next in 1943 on the train bound fornboot camp in Biloxi. But both in BiloxinBlues and in Broadway Bound, whichntakes place some years later back homenin Brighton Beach, the narrative devicenis compromised when Eugene isnnot the first to greet us on stage.nEugene becomes more obviously whatnhe has been from the start, just anothernSimon character, albeit one contrivednto beguile us in a special, confidentialnway.nIndeed, in Biloxi the story belongsnas much to the ensemble of six newnrecruits as it does to Eugene. As Simon’snspokesman, Eugene is merelynthe one who lived to tell the tale. Annargument could even be made thatnArnold Epstein, the only other Jewishnmember of the platoon, is the morencentral force and certainly the catalyst.nAs far as the Simon formula goes,nArnold is the mentor and spiritualnguide, the surrogate for Stanley in thentwo other “B” plays, for Alan in ComenBlow Your Horn, for Leo in ChapternTwo—in short, as we’re left to infer,nfor Danny Simon in Neil Simon’s life.nFor all of Simon’s efforts to resolvenhis relationship with Danny, that relationshipncontinues to be mercurial andnmysterious, at least to us and presumablynto Simon as well. Perhaps hisngreatest masterpiece will prove to be anplay more exclusively devoted to hisnrelationship with his brother—thenplay which has yet to be written. Thenrole of the paterfamilias in the autobiographicalntrilogy is too vague to shednany light on the more pivotal relationshipnwith the brother. While Mr. Jerome,nthough weakened by his heartncondition, is definitely the head of thenhouse in Brighton Beach, he is barely anshadow by the time of BroadwaynBound, deserting his wife and familynfor an extramarital affair; he is evennless of a character within the structurenof the play itselfnEugene’s special position in BroadwaynBound is even more jeopardizednthan it is in Biloxi Blues. As all arenquick to agree, this last play in thentrilogy pays homage not so much tonSimon’s early days as a writer but to hisn