Bootcamp Blues
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 21, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 PESADENA PLAYHOUSE Josh Clark (center)
gives Jonathan Wade Drahos a piece of mind in
"Biloxi Blues," now playing at the Pasadena Playhouse through Feb.
24.
By Kelsey McConnell
Daily Bruin Contributor
Amid a flurry of humor, the topics of tolerance and coming of
age in World War II America take the stage in Neil Simon’s
“Biloxi Blues.”
The 1985 Tony Award-winning play is being presented at the
Pasadena Playhouse under the direction of Paul Lazarus, now through
Feb. 24.
“I usually do new works,” said Lazarus during a
phone interview from his home. “So it’s a challenge to
make a play (that has been done so many times before) personal for
yourself.”
Throughout the course of the play, the protagonist, Eugene
Morris Jerome, based on Simon himself, leaves home for the first
time to join the army.
As he moves through basic training, Eugene is confronted with
first love, discrimination, the desire to become a writer and the
loss of innocence. The power of these themes is apparently
undiminished by the infusion of humor.
“Humor is a very serious business to me,” said
Lazarus. “Trying to find truth in humor is more difficult
than finding truth in drama. This is a rich human comedy,
it’s not cheap. Life is funny, life is stupid, life is
hurtful. We’re looking for the richest kind of humor, one
which achieves being funny and serious.”
 PLAYHOUSE
Daniel Sauli, who plays Eugene, has a similar take on the
function of humor in “Biloxi Blues.”
“It definitely serves a purpose: to make people laugh and
appreciate the way we are and the way we see things,” Sauli
said. “The humor helps accessibility to a first time being in
love, homosexuality and anti-Semitism. You laugh, hopefully you
laugh very hard, and then you can think about the
issues.”
Josh Clark, whose character, Toomey, is Eugene’s drill
sergeant, spoke about ways in which humor can be interpreted in the
staging of the play.
“The special challenge is to avoid the temptation to spend
the night going for laughs,” Clark said. “I don’t
think we’re going toward the typical light Neil Simon play
““ we’re investigating the deeper issues, and
that’s Paul’s choice.”
Indeed, the play has a value beyond its grasp of the dramatic
functions of humor. Simon’s work makes for a rich and
difficult performance and Lazarus’ interpretation of
“Biloxi Blues” finds new ways to perform a veteran
play.
 PASEDENA PLAYHOUSE Josh Carter
disciplines Evan Neum in a scene from Neil Simon’s
"Biloxi Blues."
One way in which he accomplishes this is through the stage
layout.
“I know the barracks have been done as bunk beds. We chose
to do it with six beds in a row which meant rethinking how every
scene was going to work,” he said.
Though unintentionally cast as such, Lazarus also feels that the
variety in the sound of the actors’ voices adds a singularity
to the performance.
“I’m very pleased with the group of actors because
each is so on the money for his role,” he said. “Their
voices are so distinctive that I have the sense that
everyone’s distinct vocal quality is like a different
instrument.”
Having the play performed at this moment in history, Lazarus
believes, means staging a subject with which many Americans
currently identify.
“It’s a play that resonates with today because,
again, young men are going off to war. It’s about the
seriousness of that … raw recruits being turned into
soldiers,” he said.
While this theme is somewhat universal, the differences between
World War II and the war on terrorism today are numerous.
“It’s tricky to assume that what’s going on in
the play and what’s going on today are directly
related,” Sauli said. “Technologically speaking, we
don’t fight wars like we did then.”
Whether audiences feel a connection to the war themes of the
play, they will doubtless feel the strength of Simon’s
writing.
“What I’ve come to respect is how unbelievably
skilled of a craftsman Simon is,” Lazarus said. “He can
have an extremely comic moment followed by a poignant moment. In
this play, he is at a high level of his own game.”
THEATER: “Biloxi Blues” is playing
through Feb. 24 at the Pasadena Playhouse, located at 39 South El
Molino Ave. For more information, call (626) 356-PLAY or visit
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.
