STAGE REVIEWS : Carter a ‘Brighton’ Spot in Quaint Neil Simon Play

Going to the theater at the intimate Cabrillo Playhouse here is like entering a time warp to a bygone age when everything was cozy and quaint.

On the night I went to see Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” which opened last week, everybody in the audience seemed to know each other. The men, tan in jackets and open-necked shirts, looked as if they might have spent the day on the golf course. The women, chatting amiably, might have come from a garden party.

If the occasion had a small-town ambience, so did the production by the San Clemente Community Theater. Its dollhouse-like bungalow set was neatly trimmed in picket-fence white. And Jon Taylor Carter gave a gee-whiz portrayal of 15-year-old Eugene (“I hate my name”) Jerome, whose coming of age is chronicled in the play.

Carter’s entertaining performance, an amalgam of Tom Sawyer and Dennis the Menace, made the show, even though his characterization belonged to the Midwest rather than to Brighton Beach. It was funny, well-timed and invariably a relief from the good intentions of the rest of the cast.

‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’

A San Clemente Community Theater presentation of the play by Neil Simon. Directed by Sandy Silver. Produced by Dee Blackwell. Set by Tom Reilly. Costumes by Diane Green. Lighting by Douglas Hartman. With Michelle Baker, Jon Taylor Carter, Ardis Faith, Emily Fraser, Malcolm Silver, Bart Story, and Chris Culver Vibrans. Wednesdays through Saturdays through Oct. 5 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m., at the Cabrillo Playhouse, 202 Avenida Cabrillo, San Clemente. Tickets: $10. Information: (714) 492-0465.