Biloxi Blues

Eugene #2

by Neil Simon

Winner of the 1985 Tony Award for Best Play, the second hilarious installment of Neil Simon's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy follows a naïve Eugene Jerome through boot camp in Biloxi, Mississippi. His sadistic drill sergeant-who might just be nuts-is only part of Eugene's awakening journey in which he encounters an odd and eclectic group of fellow recruits, and his first experiences with sex and love. In the end, our young, aspiring writer takes away more than just his basic training. This production features an exclusive interview with the prolific playwright. Starring Justine Bateman, Josh Radnor, Rob Benedict, Joshua Biton, John Cabrera, Matthew Patrick Davis, Steve Rankin, Russell Soder, Darby Stanchfield

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction, Humor, Comedy, Classics

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 plays and he received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. He was one of the most reliable hitmakers in Broadway history, as well as one of the most performed playwrights in the world. Though primarily a comic writer, some of his plays, particularly the Eugene Trilogy and The Sunshine Boys, reflect on the twentieth century Jewish-American experience.

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

L.A. Theatre Works' recordings of their stage performances may be my favourite hidden gem on Audible. They take wonderful plays, gather together some of the finest actors living in and around Hollywood -- some bit players who live on the Hollywood periphery, some B & C listers who fill in the ranks of famous T.V. shows as the scene stealing supporters, and some genuine stars who have time between films or on hiatus from their leading characters -- call on wonderful directors, and produce superior theatre, which is just perfect to listen to while doing dishes, folding laundry, or on the commute.

The stand our performers in their version of Biloxi Blues are Josh Radnor as Eugene (Ted from How I Met your Mother fully shaking off his famously annoying TV persona), Steve Rankin as Sgt. Toomey (a face you've seen in a million bit parts but can probably never attach to a name) and Darby Stanchfield as Daisy Hannigan (a T.V. regular who hasn't quite hit the heights she's talented enough to hit. This trio turn in wonderful performances, and made me wish I'd seen their version on-stage in L.A.. But while they are the best of the bunch, there isn't a single performance that isn't strong.

Together, the ensemble brings one of Neil Simon's finest, funniest plays, the second instalment of his Brighton Beach Trilogy, to beautiful life. Listening to these wonderful performers makes me long to see this play on stage. Hell, it makes me long to just get my ass into a live theatre again. It's been a couple of months, and I need to see a world come to life on the boards. Since that isn't possible, however, I guess I'll just pick another L.A. Theatre Works performance and let myself get carried away by the dreamlike voices of great actors from a great distance.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

2nd of the Eugene trilogy and I read it pretty immediately after the first.

This one takes place maybe 4 years after the first play and Eugene is 18 now and has left home to enlist in the army. He spends the play in basic training with a group of 4 other young boys who decided to go to war during WW2.

Even looking at the character list I was a little disappointed to not see any familiar characters besides Eugene himself. I expected the trilogy to really stick with the family the entire time and I'd see all of their growth over the span of a few years, but right away we were veering off from New York City to Biloxi for what seemed like would be an inconsequential side story and within 2 pages of dialogue people were getting their faces farted in and calling each other gay (actually not 100% on that second statement...shouldn't wait so long to write these). But reading on I think this one left a lot of space for the development of Eugene. We got to see him apply what were established as his principals in the previous play and through learning more about him and his relation to his thoughts and writing probably gained the chance to learn a lot about Neil Simon's view of himself and his own development.

The section where he's forced to defend his writing from others or collapse under the trial of explaining his private emotions to others was the best part. It's easy to relate to his self-conscious abandonment of his private self when discovered by the rest of his troop. Just as Eugene did, it's easiest to really like Epstein. I could imagine many of his lines with the most impact were taken straight from the mouth of somebody in Simon's real life and stuck with him until he had the chance to write them down.

EPSTEIN: You're a witness. You're always standing around watching what's happening. Scribbling in your book what other people do. You have to get in the middle of it. You have to take sides. Make a contribution to the fight.

EUGENE: What fight?

EPSTEIN: Any fight. The one you believe in.

EUGENE: Yeah. I know what you mean. Sometimes I feel like I'm invisible. Like The Shadow. I can see everyone else but they can't see me. That's what I think writers are. Sort of invisible.

EPSTEIN: Not Tolstoy. Not Dostoevsky. Not Herman Melville.

I loved that immediate refutation. A writer can't be invisible in a private world if they wish to create something beyond a passive memoir.

Anyway, I'd really like to see some of these on the stage, and this one would especially benefit to have faces to put with the personalities of the group of young men. Sometime in like 2026 maybe that'll be possible, we'll see.

[Mehdina · Rating 5 out of 5]

i actually think i liked this more than brighton beach. it was really funny imo, but i wish i could’ve read it faster cause we read it so spread out. absolutely evil that he didn’t marry daisy though like why was this like the great gatsby

[Jamilla Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved the film version of this play, so when I found the book on a Goodwill shelf, I thought it was a sign. Apparently the sign didn’t say “Urgent”, because I did not get to reading the play itself for quite a few years. Most of the play is the same as the movie version except for the ending and the movie’s expansion of the relationship between Jerome and Daisy. It’s sweet, yet sad, as any “coming-of-age” tale always is, except the sadness here is exacerbated by the threat of imminent death brought on by World War II. The asides in the play are the BEST! I can only imagine having seen this performed with the original cast, with Matthew Broderick stating lines like:

“Roy Seldridge from Schenectady, New York smelled like a tuna fish sandwich left out in the rain. He thought he had a terrific sense of humor, but it was hard to laugh at a guy who has cavities in nineteen out of thirty-two teeth.”

It’s definitely another piece which would be a good “guy” read (all but 2 characters are male) and the language is really honest for the time period and the situation. After seeing the movie, it’s hard not to imagine Christopher Walken as Sergeant Toomey, but there were enough differences to make the play itself worth reading. I really wonder why the ending was changed though. The film has such a happy ending, with the guys not even making it to the war, with it ending before they are deployed overseas. I suppose it was the Hollywood “feel-good” machine. Whatever.


Favorite/Memorable Quotes:

“You have to get in the middle of it. You have to take sides. Make a contribution to the fight.” (55)
“I converted to Catholicism yesterday. In six weeks I hope to become a priest and my first act of service to the Holy Father is to have you excommunicated, so get off my ass.” (74)
“The moral of this story is—when you get real horny, do unto yourself what you would otherwise do unto others . . .” (86)
“Once you start compromising your thoughts, you’re a candidate for mediocrity.” (88)
“People believe whatever they read. Something magical happens once it’s put down on paper.” (88)
“Our new sergeant was sane, logical and a decent man, and after four weeks with him, we realized how much we missed Sergeant Toomey . . . One should never underestimate the stimulation of eccentricity.” (104)

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Neil Simon plays. Interestingly, and in contrast to most other plays I like, I have read very few of them. I have seen quite a number of them on stage and of course on film. Simon, however, was not a playwright that I studied.

In 1985 or 86, my parents took me to see this at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York. They too were Simon fans. I think it helped that Biloxi was in the title, as my grandfather had been stationed there. Matthew Broderick starred in that. I knew him from War Games. Apparently, Penelope Ann Miller and David Schwimmer were in that production as well.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the show and purchased this book so I could enjoy it again. I have. :)

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because of the military setting, I just didn't love this the same way I loved Brighton Beach Memoirs. I hope I will enjoy Broadway Bound, the third play about Eugene, a bit more.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

At times amusing but often realistically brutal portrayal of life as an army recruit.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio with full cast. This was a fun listen.

[Shanna_redwind · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to a full cast audio of this play. It felt a little bit like a stand up comedy routine sometimes, but it was quite enjoyable to listen to, and some of the situations were very funny.

[Shilo Parcel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This second installment in his semi-autobiographical Eugene trilogy brings his memories of army life during World War II alive through vivid characters, sparkling dialogue, and perfectly-timed humor. The story follows Eugene Morris Jerome, Simon's alter-ego, as he enlists in the army and goes through basic training before being sent to Biloxi, Mississippi in 1943. Eugene's aspirations to become a writer amuse and bewilder his working-class fellow army recruits that he encounters. The laughs come frequently as these misfits try adjusting to military disciplines under the watch of the intimidating drill sergeant Toomey.

Simon has a knack for blending humorous tension with unexpected bursts of sentimentality. While much of the story pokes fun at the absurdities and frustrations of life in the army, there are also quiet, reflective moments where deeper bonds form among the recruits. The homesickness on Christmas day is particularly poignant.

Through his stellar writing alone, Simon brings Eugene and the entire boot camp gang to life with endearing awkwardness and quick-witted charm. Every major character will get at least one big laugh from the reader.

Biloxi Blues finds Neil Simon doing what he does best - turning personal memories into rich comedy and crafting dialogue so snappy you can't help but smile. This review could go on for pages praising the comic high notes and emotional resonance packed into such an entertaining coming-of-age tale.

[Zoe Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars; i was SO enamored of this when i was 16, entirely on account of arnold epstein. does not hold up as an adult but there is still a fondness in my heart for it

[Keith Moser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this quickly last month to see if I’d want to throw my name into the hat as a possible director. In the end I didn’t feel I had enough time to make a competent proposal, so my directing dreams will have to hold on a little while longer.

I’ve read Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs before (and seen it twice) and loved the simplicity of the story—young Eugene has to deal with a father losing his job, a brother being fired from his, a cousin(?) developing in ways he starts to notice, and the Dodgers(?) not drafting him as a relief pitcher yet. It was all cute & funny & simple (one house set).

Then, Eugene gets older and Biloxi Blues gets more complex. There are at least half a dozen different locations, and six or so army guys who go by one name in the script but are called a different name in the dialogue. It was all pretty hard to follow (I’m too old to be cast as any of the recruits, but even if I weren’t I have no idea who any character was besides Eugene, err, I mean Jerome).

The story is interesting but I didn’t find it as funny as some of Simon’s other works. Perhaps it was my fault for reading it so quickly (but not closely enough to follow who’s who), or maybe this second in his faux-biography trilogy is more serious. I’ll hopefully see the production and maybe it’ll be funnier on its feet. Unfortunately, this has soured me a little on finishing the trilogy with Broadway Bound. Maybe in another few years I’ll finally read it.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biloxi Blues is about a group of soldiers from various parts of the U.S, including some fron New York, who go to get trained to fight in World War II on a military base in Biloxi, Mississippi. The narrartor of the play is a Jewish soon-to-be soldier from Brighton Beach, New York named Eugene. The conflicts throughout the play are mainly caused by one or two mean soldiers in the group, but it's interesting to see how the soldiers get along. The interactions between the soldiers of the story is the main basis of the story, and it's a really funny play. I like how the author put a lot of humor in the play, the humor was mainly mocking the army and how it works. I saw a lot of anti-gay and anti-Jewish sentiment in the book, it seemed like they were themes present throughout the story. It was also interesting how the play started with one scene where the group of soldiers were on a train bound to go to Biloxi for training, and it ends with them leaving on a train bound to go on a ship to go to the battlefront in Europe, and they're all looking back on the weird, crazy and extraordinary experiences they had while they were training. It had sort of like a circular ending. For anyone that likes to read historical reads or funny reads, this would definitely be a good book for them.

[Neil Schleifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second of Simon's Eugene Morris Jerome trilogy is surprisingly much deeper and far more serious than either BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS or BROADWAY BOUND.

Eugene, the narrator of all three plays, takes almost a backseat in this one -- hanging in the periphery as a variety of well drawn characters step forward to deals with issues of identity -- authority (the nature of taking and receiving orders when you question their moral exactitiude), ethnic (dealing with stereotypes of Southerners, New Yorkers, Polish, Irish, etc), religious (many in the regiment have never met a Jew before), sexual (comparing the saintly Catholic girl Eugene falls in love with and the understanding but sinful southern hooker he tries to whom he tries lose his virginity), and gender (one of the soldiers is court-martialed when he is accused of being gay). Simon presents these with a sensitivity I've only seen in one other Simon play -- Lost In Yonkers. Of the Brighton Beach trilogy, this one is my favorite.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading the play “BILOXI BLUES” by NEIL SIMON. I read this book while listening to the audible version narrated by JUSTINE BATEMAN, JOSH RADNOR, ROB BENEDICT, et al. During World War II, a young Jewish man is drafted and sent to boot camp in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he faces infernal heat, a psychotic drill sergeant, and the challenges of manhood. This play is the second chapter in what is known as his EUGENE TRILOGY, following BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS and preceding BROADWAY BOUND , and is the only one in which Eugene is not the central character. This is the final book for me as I have already read those. I had already seen the movies BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS and BILOXI BLUES several times and love them. Will be checking out BROADWAY BOUND soon. 👍👍👍👍👍

[H · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel bad for rating this only 1 star because it's like telling Neil Simon "I hate your life." since this is based on his experiences. This comedy really isn't my type of humor. I hated all the characters except Eugene, Daisy, and Epstein (Maybe you're supposed to...?). There are some redeeming scenes, but all in all, the characters are disgusting and vulgar.
Maybe my hopes were set too high for this play. I had heard of the legendary comedic playwright and was expecting something hilariously funny and witty. Unfortunately that was not so, and I finished the play disappointed and vaguely offended.

[Charlie Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being an award-winning play written a couple of years earlier, I'm wondering to what extent this play influenced Full Metal Jacket. The mouthy Sargent and focus on basic training and a weedy intellectual that goes into writing for the army news are the basic similarities. Having said that, it has some similarities with Colin Morris's farce Reluctant Heroes, which was written much earlier. Perhaps it's just really difficult to have an original idea with the amount of writing out there. Having said all that, this is a decent play. I might watch the film with Matthew Broderick—but I just as easily might not.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of Neil Simon's autobiographical plays about his life in the army, Biloxi Blues takes our protganist and a small crew of loveable army grunts to Biloxi, Mississippi for basic training. A mass of one-liners, well drawn characters and some surprisingly poignant moments follow, in what is an easily digestible comedy with surprising substance (or unsurprising for those familiar with Neil Simon's work).

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This play was a little funny. It had an interesting historical perspective. All of the drama/action was developed through internal or interpersonal interactions (there was no active combat, physical fighting, car chases, etc.). I listened to the audiobook and I think it is worth listening to, so I would recommend this audiobook to others. It is not my favorite text by any means, but it was interesting enough to be enjoyable.

[Paul LaFontaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The autobiographical story of Simon's entry into the Army during WWII and the experiences he and his new platoon mates have at the hands of their drill instructors.

Neil Simon is the master of constructing these plays on many levels. The characters are vibrant, the plot moves along understandably and there are a lot of laughs. In this one the improbably campy drill sergeant did not ring true, but made for a good story.

Recommend

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange experience, reading this play at the same time as David Rabe's STREAMERS. There are similarities, but this play is a comedy. Both deal with some serious subjects, like being gay in the military. On the whole, maybe comedy is a better choice for this subject matter, because I'm really not enjoying the Rave play.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended up listening to an audio recording of this based on reviews on Goodreads, and it was a delight. This is a play that works better when you hear someone actually delivering the jokes. Some of the boys are obnoxious and immature, but isn't that most boys around 18 or so? I think it works better in performance and this is definitely a script I would consider producing

[M. Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable study of young men from different backgrounds forced to live and operate together as a unit. It also demonstrates how even with the spectre of death on our shoulder, we still remain human with the desire for friendship and love.

[P.S. Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life, love and growing up as you face WWII in this book of friendship, experience and memories.

[Lauren Hancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very funny. I'm on a mission to read all of Neil Simon's plays. Next up: Brighton Beach Memoirs.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compassion and dignity. Great play: if a little rough in language, it is about training camp.

[Gab · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING!!! Can't wait to read the final book to this trilogy. :)

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eugene is a great character but this feels like a humdrum movie sequel. It advances his life but lacks much of the charm and humor that made Brighton Beach Memoirs so good.

[Dan Blackley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second in the trilogy, this is his experiences during WWII. Funny and thought provoking.

[Bob O'G · Rating 4 out of 5]

"One should never underestimate the stimulation of eccentricity."