Little Odessa boasts a vibrant community, rich in Russian cuisine, music, and shops and boutiques. It’s influence on popular culture has been widespread. Click on the dates or arrows below to view our cultural timeline.
1983
Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” a play set in Brighton Beach, wins two Tony awards.
1992
Brighton Beach is featured in the 1990s Russian spy-comedy Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach.
1994
The 1994 film Little Odessa is set in Brighton Beach.
1998
In the 1998 novel In Every Laugh a Tear by Lesléa Newman, developments take place partly in Brighton Beach.
1998
In the 1998 trading autobiography The Education of a Speculator, speculator and hedge fund manager Victor Niederhoffer takes us back to his childhood in Brighton Beach during the 1950s.
1999
On the TV series The West Wing, Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) hails from Brighton Beach.
2000
In Darren Aronofsky’s 2000 film, Requiem for a Dream, the character Sara Goldfarb (played by Ellen Burstyn) lives in an apartment on Brighton 6th Street.
2000
In the Russian crime film Brother 2, Danila, the protagonist, comes to Brighton Beach from Russia.
2000
In the 2000 novel Vector by Robin Cook, disillusioned former Russian biochemical worker Yuri Davydov develops weapons-grade Anthrax in the basement of his Brighton Beach home.
2005
In the film Lord of War, the main character, Yuri Orlov, played by Nicolas Cage, lives in Brighton Beach.
2005
The French electronic music group Telepopmusik has a song on their album Angel Milk entitled “Brighton Beach”.
2007
In the 2007 crime drama, We Own the Night, the character Bobby Green, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is the manager of a nightclub in Brighton Beach.
2008
In the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, Brighton Beach is represented by the neighborhood of “Hove Beach”. This is in reference to Brighton, England’s proximity to, and relationship with, neighboring Hove. The two, having city status, are officially known as Brighton and Hove.
2009
In the 2009 film Two Lovers, featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, the action takes place in Brighton Beach.
2010
4
In the space flight simulator Orbiter, there is a fictional base on the moon named Brighton Beach.
2011
In an episode of the CBS’s Blue Bloods the storyline revolves around the murder of a Russian Mob associate who lived in Brighton Beach. Several scenes are shot on and around the boardwalk.
2011
In Haley Tanner’s debut novel Vaclav and Lena (2011) action takes place in Brighton Beach
2011
In the episode “Witness” of the TV series Person of Interest (2011), Reese has to protect a Brighton Beach high school history teacher who’s being hunted by the Russian mob.
2012
In the Season 2 episode Deep in Death of the TV series Castle, Russian speaking Detective Kate Beckett explains that when she is bored she likes to go to Glechik Cafe in Little Odessa and pretend to be Muscovite.