'BILOXI BLUES' ARRIVES AT AN APT TIME.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

With ``Biloxi Blues,'' the second and least treacly of his trio of autobiographical plays, Neil Simon got it right. America's most popular playwright stuck Eugene Jerome - his youthful alter ego - into boot camp during World War II, brought out all of the naivete and longings of youth and turned a perceptive eye to questions of comradeship, dignity and soldiering. Simon has penned funnier plays, but for dramatic and comic balance, nothing in his considerable canon tops ``Biloxi Blues.''

Bits of the playwright's skill are on display in the Pasadena Playhouse's current revival of ``Blues,'' but Paul Lazarus' production has little spark. Too many of the roles hang on the performers like ill-fitting fatigues, while other cast members are just plain lifeless. Director Lazarus is clearly trying to tap into a climate of patriotism; now is indeed a good time to revisit ``Blues,'' but his actors can't answer the bell.

The year is 1943, and our hero, Eugene (played by Daniel Sauli), is bound for Biloxi, Miss., for basic training. America is at war, and a worried Eugene is not quite ready to let go of his youth. His goals for the foreseeable future: stay alive, become a writer, lose his virginity, fall in love.

Providing him with much to fill a journal are his company members. They include the brutish Wykowski (Jonathan Wade Drahos), who was born to be a soldier, and Selridge (Ben Tolpin), Wykowski's dull-witted crony. Like Eugene, indecisive Carney (Robert Della Cerra) needs to learn about making firm choices. Having no trouble in the singularity of purpose department is Arnold Epstein (Evan Neuman), a fellow Jew who takes stands against military injustice or barbarity wherever he finds them. Epstein's behavior doesn't sit well with tyrannical drill Sgt. Merwin J. Toomey (Josh Clark).

Many of the encounters feel like the set pieces they are. The company bonds over inedible food in the mess hall; here, Toomey sadistically tests his soldiers' moral fortitude. The camaraderie is often forced and stagy.

What little oomph the production can muster kicks in during the Epstein/Toomey face-offs. These are Simon's two most vividly drawn roles, and Lazarus has cast them smartly. Neuman, a stage newcomer, gives us a character who is soft spoken and utterly self-assured, exactly the kind of person who would drive a martinet like Toomey up a tree. You want to applaud him or shake him, sometimes both. Clark's Toomey plays to the audience more than to his company, but he does crackerjack work as well.

Looking a bit like a younger Gary Sinise, Sauli's Eugene comes across as largely passive, befitting the observer that the character so often seems to be. Sauli does snap off the playwright's witty lines without sounding like he's channeling Matthew Broderick, who created the role on stage.

Broderick plays the role in Mike Nichols' first-rate 1988 film. Here's betting that version of ``Blues'' holds up - in war time and in peace.

``BILOXI BLUES''

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Feb. 24.

Tickets: $39.50 to $44.50. Call [phone].

Our rating: Two stars

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Photo:

Terrifying drill Sgt. Toomey, played by Josh Clark, center, bullies his men in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Neil Simon's ``Biloxi Blues.''