There is no clean way to pass the -javaagent parameter to invoke the java command with playback 2.0.1-2.0.4 without changing the script.
I was able to get javaagent using the following technique:
sed -i 's/^java\( \${PLAY_OPTS}\)\?/java ${PLAY_OPTS}/' ${playPath}/framework/build
You can then pass the -javaagent parameter this way:
export PLAY_OPTS='-javaagent:/lib/newrelic/newrelic.jar'
${playPath}/play -Dconfig.file=conf/prod.conf -Dlogger.file=conf/prod-logger.xml start
Update
sidenote - New-Relic, New-Relic play-framework 2.x (2012-10-04).