BILOXI BLUES

'''Biloxi Blues''' is a semi-autobiographical Tony Award-winning stage play written by Neil Simon that was also released as a major motion picture. The second chapter in what is known as Simon's "Eugene Trilogy" (the first being ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' and the third being ''Broadway Bound''), the story centers around Eugene Morris Jerome, a 20-year-old "Brooklynite" who enlists in the United States Army during World War II. Jerome is sent to Biloxi, Mississippi for basic training, during which time he learns to cope with fellow soldiers of all walks of life, falls in love, loses his virginity in less than ideal circumstances, and more, all while having to cope with an eccentric drill sergeant.

Contents

The play

The film

Trivia

External links

The play

The play opened on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre on March 28, 1985. The stage version starred Matthew Broderick as Jerome, William Sadler as Sgt. Merwin J. Toomey, and Penelope Ann Miller as Daisy Hannigan. The original production also featured Matt Mulhern as Joseph Wykowski, Barry Miller as Arnold Epstein, and Alan Ruck as Don Carney. The story takes place during the early months of 1943.
The play ran for a total of 524 performances (closing on June 28, 1986) and won the Tony Award for Best Play. Gene Saks won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Barry Miller won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play.

The film

The 1988 film version, directed by Mike Nichols, also starred Broderick. Mulhern and Penelope Anne Miller also reprised their roles, though Christopher Walken starred as Sgt. Toomey. Corey Parker took on the role of Epstein, and Casey Siemaszko played Carney.
The story takes place in the summer of 1945, during what would turn out to be the closing days of the War.

Trivia

★ Sgt. Toomey states that he "''...served fourteen months in the North Africa Campaign''..." The fact that the U.S. began direct assistance to Allied forces in North Africa on May 11, 1942, and considering that the Axis forces surrendered on May 13, 1943, makes this a possible exaggeration, unless Sgt. Toomey remained behind an additional two months as part of the stabilization process for the region, or received his wound near the end of the campaign and was treated in the region.
Biloxi was never a location for Basic Training, instead, Camp Shelby, a National Guard Training Center, served as a training site.

External links

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★ brief synopsis at ''BroadwayWorld.com''

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