‘Biloxi Blues’ Keeps Focus on Target

With “Biloxi Blues,” Phrasemaker to the Stars Neil Simon took a wide enough detour from signature shtick to create a work of surprising maturity and depth--perhaps his finest.

Forgoing his usual predilection for cleverness at the expense of emotional truth, Simon kept the one-liners to a minimum in this semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama set in boot camp during World War II.

Dan Shor’s first-rate staging at the Court Theatre embraces this shift of emphasis and zeros in on the play’s strengths--its carefully drawn characterizations and reality-based depiction of barracks life.

Heading up a perfectly cast assortment of young recruits is Josh Adell as Simon’s recurring narrator and alter ego, Eugene Jerome, who ironically discovers a lot about his identity in the course of having it systematically stripped away by his overbearing drill instructor, Sgt. Toomey (Kim Strauss).

Providing a thoroughly believable cross-section as Eugene’s bunkmates are earthy, muscle-bound Rick Schatz; gangly, indecisive Sebastian Tillinger; clueless Jimmy Peterson (subbing for Chad Cox), and secretive Chad Allen. Heather Tom needs to fill in some nuances as Eugene’s love interest.

Jeff Maynard is particularly effective as Epstein, the Jewish intellectual whose refusal to compromise his principles of dignity and compassion puts him on a collision course with the discipline-minded sergeant. A slight but distracting smirk to Strauss’ Toomey keeps him a hair short of total conviction, lowering the tension between the antagonists. Nevertheless, the play’s meditations on prejudice, camaraderie and the widening of experiential horizons resonate with rare authenticity.

* “Biloxi Blues,” Court Theatre, 722 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. Thursdays--Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 18. $15-20. (213) 857-0207. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.