Biloxi Blues | Literary Criticism & Book Review

Biloxi Blues Critical Overview

Biloxi Blues is one of Simon's most successful plays. Simon won his first Tony Award for best play in 1985, and Matthew Broderick, playing the role of Eugene, won the Tony for leading actor. Following on the heels of Brighton Beach Memoirs, which opened Simon's autobiographical trilogy of plays, Biloxi Blues represented a turning point in the critical reception of Simon's work.

First and foremost, many reviewers commented on Simon's new and readily apparent interest in examining his own past, including his emergence as a writer. Indeed, Simon's representation of Eugene's army career is almost identical to Simon's own, as is the family background presented in Brighton Beach Memoirs. As William A. Henry III writes in his review in Time, "Neil Simon has seemed in recent writing to seek a greater resonance between his plays and his most personal recollections, and to yearn for the respect that accrues to...
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