Whenever Donald Margulies has promoted Brooklyn Boy, he's mentioned that it was his pal, playwright Herb Gardner, who urged him to consider his native borough for the makings of a new play. Of course, Margulies isn't the first Jewish writer to revisit the old neighborhood physically and cogitatively for inspiration; to name only two others, David Mamet went back for the play that he titled The Old Neighborhood and Avery Corman returned for the novel that he also titled The Old Neighborhood.

Indeed, Brooklyn Boy -- which, like all of Margulies' plays, is beautifully crafted from line to line -- wears a sense of déjà vu as heavy as an Astrakhan overcoat. Increasingly, you get [...]