Making his Broadway debut, Robbins is better than Jonathan Silverman, who had the role in the 1986 film version. His timing is perfect. His physical comedy is on-point from fidgeting at the table, to running across the stage. His dropping of the napkin trick is priceless. And his delivery is stellar, evoking a sense of neurotic Jewish guilt for being blamed for everything.

But at a tumultuous dinner, he’s not the one to blame. His father Jack (Dennis Boutsikaris) has lost his job. His brother Stanley (Santino Fontana) has been fired but has a chance to apologize and get his job back. His cousin Nora (Alexandra Socha) may have a chance to be a Broadway dancer, but she’s got to quit school.

Laurie Metcalf, who made a name for herself on “Roseanne,” is wonderful as Kate, the matriarch of the home who isn’t taking any nonsense from anyone. While she is fun to watch (especially when she catches Eugene taking a cookie) and Robbins is dazzling, it’s Fontana who steals the show. In a role that could easily be a throw-away part, Fontana gives it a new level of complexity, deftly switching from the fun loving brother who will teach his brother about the birds and the bees, to a man struggling recover from the sting of losing his $17 salary in a poker game. He has uncanny chemistry with Robbins and when he urges his younger brother to make something of himself at school because he never got the chance, it comes across as genuine, where many other actors would deliver it as if it were from a Hallmark card.

Boutsikaris shines as a father with a tough exterior but a sensitive inside where he cares about his children and their principles. Fortunately, Neil Simon’s classic play is done justice here and David Cromer’s direction includes an authentic looking set where you can see what characters are doing in their rooms while the action goes on downstairs.

All of the actors do their best at a Brooklyn accent, with Jessica Hecht and Gracie Bea Lawrence taking the cake. Hecht clearly knows what she’s doing, playing the role of Blanche, a lonely woman who hasn’t moved on since the death of her husband and restricts her daughter every step of the way.

Socha finds her way as an attractive and ditsy spitfire eager to show her independence as Nora, who is also the object of Eugene’s fantasies. Hecht turns in a solid performance as a woman whose hopes and dreams hinge on a date with Mr. Murphy who is often drunk and she constantly dotes on Lawrence due to a fluttery heart while ignoring the needs of Nora.

Thankfully, the shows got plenty of zingers. When Kate asks Eugene what he would say to his father if he came home and she had dropped dead in the kitchen, he tells her he’d tell his father not to go in the kitchen. There’s another about how Kate only wants to buy things in small quantities because the house could burn down. While the play is humorous and is a splendid coming of age story for Eugene, who wonders if he would rather see a girl naked or have a tryout for the Yankees, there’s a lot more. It’s a play about taking risks and how there’s more to life than sitting at home waiting for something to happen. It’s also about parenting and knowing how tightly to hold on and when to let go. While one might think this play would appeal only to an older Jewish crowd and the nostalgic period of the late 1930’s when war was on the horizon and you could but things for a quarter, younger theater-goers will appreciate the humor and the action on stage.

This is a play that will make you laugh, appreciate your parents a bit more, and maybe stop you from going to an underground poker game. Simon’s characters have a bit more psychological insight than most in real life, but it brings home the point of thinking about ways to resolve different conflicts and make difficult decisions.

But this one’s easy. Go see “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” and you won’t be sorry. It’s better than ice cream.

“Brighton Beach Memoirs”

Directed by David Cromer

Written by Neil Simon

Starring Noah Robbins, Laurie Metcalf

At The Nederlander Theatre

208 West 41st Street

Grade: A

nederlandertheatre.com