Broadway Bound

Made as a TV movie, the last part of Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy - following Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues - is also the nadir. All together now - let my people go! This Jewish family seems to have been with us as long as the Archers, with Momma (Bancroft) cooking, Poppa (Orbach) kvetching, Granddad (Cronyn) complaining, the boys (Parker and Silverman) spoiled and getting ahead, and typicality ruling unchallenged for the first half. A little drama is injected when the boys, trying out as radio script writers, put their own family on the air, which pisses off Poppa in a big way. Momma and Poppa and the boys go their separate ways; Momma remembers dancing as a teenager with George Raft. That's it. Bancroft does her considerable best with a squashy role, but the marvellous Cronyn is stuck with an unbudgeable garden gnome. Barely endurable.