‘Biloxi Blues’ cast’s energy hard to resist

It would be foolhardy to call Theatre in the Valley's "Biloxi Blues" good theater. You can tell immediately that this mounting of the Neil Simon comedy is very much an amateur-level effort. But the production grows on you, for a very good reason: The director and cast do a good job of defining the characters and making us cheer for them. You come to know the soul of each individual.

Simon's 1985 Tony-winning comedy follows the adventures of six boot camp trainees in 1943. The drill sergeant (Daryl Morris) shows no mercy as he tries to whip the immature young men into disciplined soldiers. Eugene Jerome (Taylor Campbell) seems like he could be a decent warman, but we can see he was meant to be a writer. He chronicles the behavior of his colleagues, and we know he's going to become a rich and famous playwright named -- no, you guess.

This is one of Simon's best scripts, perhaps because it's one of the few that seems to be about real people. The second act gets improbable, and there are too many impersonal quips for my taste, but it's an entertaining crowd-pleaser.

Director Theron LaFountain doesn't shape any strong performances, but he does allow the charisma of the cast to shine through. Particularly intriguing is Matthew Poleski as the bullying, thought-challenged but ultimately likable Joseph Wykowski. Poleski makes his character the Neanderthal he's supposed to be, and yet we also can believe he's going to grow into a heroic solider. Poleski convinces us his character is at a stage of intense emotional growth by communicating his confusion about moralities. You feel as if Poleski's Wykowski eventually will come to do the right thing, once he learns what it is.

Neil Herman is a hoot (though a bit overstated) as the ultra-geek (and anti-Semitic victim) Arnold B. Epstein, and Chris Sailer, as the troubled James J. Hennessey, is able to suggest the heaviness on his mind.

The set is a traveling one (I saw it at the Sun City MacDonald Ranch) and still deserves criticism for not being as creative as it should have been. (It's all black curtain and black-cubed platforms.) The lights are flat and confused.

But if you go to this with the idea of rooting for an average community show, you're likely to be pleased. The energy and earnestness of the cast is at times difficult to resist.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.