It is also curiously depressing it evokes nostalgia without creating it. The movie Mike Nichols has directed from the play is pale, shallow, unconvincing and predictable, and tells us less about the characters than we already know. There are moments when we witness inner pain, but his impact fades when the script drops him for half of the second act.“Biloxi Blues” may indeed be based on memories from Neil Simon’s experiences in basic training during World War II, but it seems equally based on every movie ever made about basic training, and it suffers by comparison with most of them.
Sauli lacks edge, remaining amiably middle of the road.Ĭlark’s Sergeant Toomey conveys the obsessiveness and harshness of his character, without becoming as terrifying as he should. To compensate, the role needs an actor of magnetism and charisma. Since he never sticks his neck out from start to finish, his hero status is a matter of what we’re told, rather than what we see. You have to take sides, make a contribution to the fight.” Eugene is an observer who writes in a diary, remains “neutral, like Switzerland,” and concentrates on his goals: to be an author, stay alive and lose his virginity. Epstein accuses him of “standing around watching. Unfortunately, the ostensible hero, Eugene, is pallid. One of Epstein’s admirable acts is to assume blame for someone else’s theft so others in his platoon can have their 48-hour pass. Epstein is a brilliantly conceived character, and Neuman portrays him with remarkable humor and intensity. This plot is the show’s most absorbing aspect, and it simultaneously enhances and undermines the production’s basic structure.
These include Eugene Jerome, an aspiring writer Arnold Epstein (Evan Neuman), a quietly rebellious intellectual Joseph Wykowski (Jonathan Wade Drahos), a beefy, loud-mouthed anti-Semite Roy Selridge (Ben Tolpin), a dense, small-town hick and Don Carney (Robert Della Cerra), a dreamer who sings happily and badly.Įxpectations of a loving Jimmy Stewart-type sergeant are shattered when the nervous quintet are faced with Merwin Toomey (Josh Clark), a bully who pits them against each other, demands endless pushups, force-feeds them inedible food and defines himself as “the cruelest, craziest, most sadistic son of a bitch you ever saw.” Four of the five cooperate, but idealistic Epstein refuses to be treated like an animal and declares war against Toomey and the system. The show opens in 1943, as five young men meet and clash on a train bound for Biloxi, Miss.
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